Some Famous Composers

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Beethoven has achieved iconic status as a composer. In the musical community, this position has been achieved due to the immense, even revolutionary, influence he has had on the development of music as the pivot point from the Classical to the Romantic eras. His symphonies in particular demonstrate this development, themes from the 5th and the 9th being instantly recognisable, the latter used as the European Anthem. His image is also well-known among non-musicians, with his features of intense concentration and unruly hair. Beethoven's deafness has served to underline this position as icon, both because it makes his achievements seem more remarkable, but also because it emphasises the popular picture of a composer whose inspiration comes from within, those inner thoughts and sounds are elaborated and pieced together into the most intricate musical canvas.

Beethoven was born in Bonn in Germany and, like Mozart, into a musical family whose father and grandfather were both singers. Though not to the same extent perhaps as Mozart, he was also a musical prodigy, whose father had taught him music at an early age (and some say bullied his son to further his own ambitions), and this education was continued by court musicians such as Neefe. His early talent was demonstrated particularly at the keyboard, as pianist, organist and harpsichordist, although he also showed talent on the violin. He studied composition with Haydn and other composers of the day, also reputedly receiving some tuition from Mozart after moving to Vienna, and his early works are not too far removed from the output of Haydn and Mozart.

Beethoven's influences

We've mentioned that Beethoven learned much musically from his teachers. He also learned much from studying Bach's works, such as the 48 preludes and fugues, and it is interesting to see how Beethoven employed fugal writing himself within his symphonies as a form of development (see for example the slow movement of the 7th symphony again). However, although Beethoven had a number of musical influences, in some ways that is not the most important aspect of his creativity. Rather in many ways it was his own thoughts, feelings and ideology which he strove to commit to musical form, and it was this which singled Beethoven out as the first of the great Romantic composers.

Prior to this time, composers were typically employees of state, church or wealthy titled patron who requested works to suit various important occasions whether secular or religious. In contrast Beethoven, like Mozart, was an independent creative artist who to some extent could set his own agenda. This agenda may have been fuelled in some more intimate works by his several failed love affairs and knowledge of his growing deafness, but other grander influences (particularly in his 3rd, 5th and 9th symphonies) were ideals of liberty, republicanism, religious beliefs and the brotherhood of man.

Beethoven's method of working was to record ideas in numerous notebooks, which sometimes he would mull over for years, before eventually developing them into the building blocks of his compositions. So for example the seeds of the theme which eventually became the Ode to Joy, was originally conceived more than a decade earlier. This suggest a long gestation period and supreme attention to detail in order to depict in music the strength of his idealism. This creative process and the path he initiated was followed and extended by many other composers of the Romantic era, including composers as diverse as Brahms, Wagner and Mahler.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Mozart was born in Salzburg (where his house can still be viewed today, not too far from some of the locations used in The Sound of Music!). His father Leopold was himself a musician and composer who taught the young Mozart at a very early age. So successful was this that Mozart was able to play the piano at the age of 4 and he was composing his own works from the age of 5. When he was 6, while learning the violin, his father took Mozart and his elder sister (Maria Anna, also a young pianist) on a tour of Europe lasting 4 years to exhibit their talents to a wide audience. The gifted pair were presented to and celebrated by the Nobility and Royalty of several countries, meeting Louis XV of France, Georges III of England and also Marie Antoinette who was also of a similar age. Wolfgang Amadeus was even decorated by the Pope.

Hence Mozart was immersed in music and in performing throughout his formative years. To demonstrate the skills of the young Mozart as a composer, we include here two of his early works composed around 1762 at the ages of 5 or 6. These works were originally catalogued by Ludwig von Kochel in 1862, giving them their "K" numbers which were intended to be chronological. We now know more about the dates of composition so that K.2 was actually composed before K.1 and there were a few works written between them.

The novelty factor of child prodigies wears off as they grow older, so Mozart had to struggle more as a teenager and young adult. He went on a second money-raising tour to Paris, where his mother who accompanied him died. Mozart returned to Salzburg but his relationship with the Archbishop (his father's employer) was not very good. It was at the age of about 25 that Mozart moved and settled in Vienna, where he married Constanze Weber and fathered 6 children (though only 2 survived). There as a freelance composer he struggled to make ends meet, frequently having to borrow money from friends. However, during this last decade of his short life he was at the peak of his phenomenal skill as a composer and wrote a large number of his best known works. He died leaving his last work (a Requiem) not quite finished, and following the most basic of funerals was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. There is now a monument to Mozart in his adoptive city of Vienna.

Musical Influences:

While visiting England during the early European tour, Wolfgang met with Johann Christian Bach (one of the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach) and struck up a friendship with him which undoubtedly had an influence on the direction taken the young composer. Later at the age of 16 on a visit to Vienna, Mozart got to know the music of Haydn. The two formed a close relationship of mutual support and there is a strong similarity not only their musical forms and traditions but also in their musical soundscape and tuneful lyricism. Although Mozart is frequently thought of as composing the most beautiful music effortlessly, he studied hard under his father to learn the techniques of the established masters including Bach, Handel and Haydn. The triumvirate of Haydn, Mozart and the early Beethoven are frequently thought of as being at the core of the classical era where the forms we know today (including the Symphony, Sonata and Concerto) were consolidated and stretched. These three in turn were to deeply influence composers over the next two centuries.

Mozart became a Freemason while staying in Vienna, and it was his masonic friends who helped to support him financially. Freemasonry was also an influence on him musically, and he incorporated masonic symbolism into some of his works of this period. One final thing that's worth mentioning about Mozart and his music is that his name has been used in the context of the "Mozart Effect". It has been noted in various studies that classical music can make people and animals relax or become more productive. While the effect is said to occur for a wide range of classical music, it is the music of Mozart that is most closely associated with this phenomenon, and possibly because his work is often thought of a being perfectly formed.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)

With Bach, the Baroque era went out with a bang. Though the seeds of classicism were very much sown during his lifetime, his sons being some of the prime shapers of that movement, Johann Sebastian Bach remained largely fixed in the Baroque traditions yet was able to fashion them as no-one else, either before him or since, into a towering peak of structural grace and formal perfection. It is this supreme craftmanship, largely unrecognised at the time, which has earned Bach an enormous stature in later years among composers and musicians.

The Bach family

Though his contemporary Handel moved to England, Bach remained for most of his musical career in his native Germany. He had held a number of posts in various locations as musician or music director to a number of Dukes and Princes, when his first wife died leaving 7 children. In the early 1720s, Bach married his 2nd wife, Anna Magdalena Wulcken (herself a musician) and took up the post in Leipzig where his duties included directing the musical requirements of the local church and associated school. While employed there, the couple extended the family by another 13 (though 7 children did not survive into adulthood) as well fulfilling the demands of the employment. Unsurprisingly the family were all musically gifted, Bach's eldest son (Wilhlem Friedermann Bach) was a great organist like his father, Carl Philipp Emanuel became a musician in the court of the future Frederick the Great, and Johann Christian was also an organist and moved to London in the employ of Queen Charlotte. Those latter two sons were very influential in the development of classical forms from their precursors in baroque forms such as the Suite.

But while his sons were to help found the new school, it was the old school training from the father which sowed this seed. By all accounts, the Bachs became a nerve centre for all things musical in the area, with their extended family of relatives, friends and musicians both local and visiting. It may well be that some of the output from that time would not have survived if Anna Magdelena had not recorded many examples of smaller works in her two "notebook" collections of which the following four pieces are from the 2nd Notebook:

There are many books with selections from the Anna Magdelena Bach notebooks which are a good place to start learning baroque keyboard music. Here are two selections from Sheet Music Plus in the US or The Music Room in the UK.

Johann Sebastian Bach's music

It was as a performing that Bach was perhaps best-known in his day. He was a master of the keyboard instruments of his day, particularly the Organ, Harpsichord and Clavichord. When the "well-tempered" method of tuning was adopted for the early stringed keyboard instruments, Bach was inspired to compose his 48 preludes and fugues (now usually played on the modern piano). He was a prolific composer of keyboard works for these instruments, of suites and other works for orchestras and cantatas and other works for singers. Although he occasionally traveled to entertain and meet other musicians, much of his life was spent heading up a cottage industry creating works required for various occasions as demanded by his employment at the time.

As per the baroque style, much of his music is contrapuntal in nature meaning that several independent voices are used to weave a tapestry of sound. The king of this polyphonic style is the fugue where rules dictate a certain structure to the interaction of the voices, yet the skill is within these confines to exhibit creative invention. In some ways this theme of freedom within an ordered world mirrors Bach's lifestyle, and he himself became the supreme master of the fugue. His final work, called the Art of Fugue, demonstrating how he could construct a wide variety of fugues with different numbers of voices from a single musical idea.

The 6 Brandenberg concertos are of a form known as "concerti grossi" which is something a little more unified than a suite, and later to evolve into the symphony, concerto and other works based on sonata form. These concertos are fairly early works in Bach's career yet they exhibit much invention in the use of different instrumental colours. Here is an interesting video made by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra which is an excellent introduction to these wonderful concertos. Among many now famous works, there are his Mass in B minor, the St. John and St. Matthew Passions, the Christmas Oratorio, the Goldberg variations, the Italian concerto (for solo keyboard), Preludes and Fugues for Clavier, and Preludes and Fugues or Toccatas and Fugues for Organ.

Bach's legacy

Bach is often regarded as being self-taught to a large extent and relatively uneducated. While this may have some basis in truth it is surely something of an exaggeration, likewise the claim that Bach was an unrecognised talent in his own lifetime. Though Bach's works were known to composers such as Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, it was not until Mendelssohn played the St. Matthew Passion in 1829 that Bach's previously hidden talents as a composer began to get a more widespread recognition.

Since then Bach's music has frequently inspired musicians such as Chopin, many composers arranging and adapting his works. In terms of classical composers, Gounod used the first prelude from book 1 of the 48 as the basis for his "Ave Maria", Busoni created a supremely elegant piano version of Bach's Chaconne from a violin work, and Liszt and Rachmaninov both transcribed Bach works for piano. Many composers have studied his work in much detail and Shostakovich has written his own set of 24 Preludes and Fugues. Even in today's world of popular music, you can still hear singles based on say his Toccata and Fugue in Dm for organ, or his "Air on a G string" taken from a suite.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)

Peter (or Pyotr) Ilyich Tchaikovsky is a composer whose music has made an indellible impression on the world, yet many things seemed to be stacked against him. His mother died from Cholera when Tchaikovsky was only 14 years old and this great loss affected the boy deeply. As a boy and also in later life, he suffered from various neuroses and experienced periods of deep depression. Although he learned the piano as a boy, Tchaikovsky was initially to study law and his first profession was as a clerk performing administrative functions. It was only at the age of 23 that he made a career change and decided to study composition at the new St. Petersburg Conservatory. His success there led to a post at the (also new) Moscow Conservatory with Nicholas Rubenstein (the brother of Anton Rubenstein who had established the St. Petersburg Conservatory). Although Tchaikovsky's music is now universally admired across the world, he wasn't always to receive a warm reception in his native Russia and a poor critical reception to his works understandably contributed to his periods of depression. For example, his first Piano Concerto which is now instantly recognisable and a firm favourite with concert goers was initially dedicated to Nicholas Rubenstein. He didn't like the work and Tchaikovsky felt devastated. The dedication was changed but years later Rubenstein changed his mind and was to play the work regularly.

The image that history has left us of Tchaikovsky is of a solitary figure who often worked in isolation. When in later life he accepted invitations to conduct, he felt homesick and longed to return home. For a while Tchaikovsky struck up a curious relationship with a woman called Nadezhda van Meck who became his benefactor, and her regular funding and letters of encouragement allowed him to compose without the constant worry of earning a living and he resigned from the Moscow Conservatory to concentrate on composition. The relationship was curious because the two never met. Undoubtedly a major contributor to the composer's bouts of depression was his homosexuality. This is not surprising since at that time in Russia, the state considered certain acts to be crimes carrying the death penalty! At one stage Tchaikovsky married a female admirer, perhaps to conceal his true nature, but the marriage was a disaster. It broke up within a short period of time, and Tchaikovsky suffered a breakdown and attempted suicide. It is not surprising that some of Tchaikovsky's music is full of sadness and despair. What is surprising perhaps is that much of his music is bright and happy.

Tchaikovsky was never a total recluse. He met many other composers and musicians of the day. In his native Russia he certainly knew several members of the Russian Nationalist School and for a while was inspired by their musical thinking. The core of this group consisted of five composers often referred to as the "kuchka" or "mighty handful" - Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Mily Balakirev, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin and Cesar Cui. These composers sought to compose and promote music which emphasised its Russian origins using folk music and other traditions, and largely shunning the music being composed in other parts of the world. Tchaikovsky's music might seem very Russian to modern ears, but his fellow countrymen detected traces of European influence. It is true that his music has a broader appeal, characterised by beautiful melodies, inventive orchestration, and a "heart on sleeve" emotional warmth and engagement. Indeed his music was more popular abroad than in his native country, and perhaps this was the cause of some initial resentment back home.

In time Tchaikovsky's music became more accepted in Russia. When his former benefactor stopped his allowance after 13 years, he was soon the beneficiary of funding from the Russian government. He even overcame his previous reluctance both to travel and to conduct. He travelled abroad to conduct his own music in European cities and in the US to great success. However his life was to end in tragedy. The official story is that he contacted Cholera (the same disease which had struck his mother years before) by carelessly drinking a glass of unboiled water, though a later story suggested that he committed suicide. Shortly before he died, Tchaikovsky had completed his 6th Symphony. The premier was not a great critical success, but the piece's mood of deepest despair seems prophetic.

Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)

Franz Joseph Haydn is a cornerstone of the Classical Period of music. He came at a time when the influence of the church on musical development was diminishing and this influence was moving towards the nobility who employed composers to provide entertainment for their guests. In Haydn's case his employment by one family was a happy and rewarding one, which gave him a lot of freedom to explore many different aspects of music. This experimentation and the experience gained allowed Haydn to play a crucial role in establishing many of the key classical forms such as the Symphony, the String Quartet, the Sonata and the Concerto. Although versions of all these forms already existed, Haydn was the principle composer to establish and promote them. A key component of all these forms is something called "Sonata Form" which was normally used for the first (and sometimes later) movements of a works. Haydn's key role in classical music, his reputation across Europe, and the wealth of music he created over the years, earned him the knickname "Papa Haydn".

Haydn was born in Austia, he learned the harp at an early age and became a boy singer in a choir in Vienna. The music he learned to play and sing, and the folk music of the areas he knew kindled a keen interest in music and it became clear that Haydn was destined for a musical career. He left the choir when his voice broke, embarked upon a self-study of the music of various composers and received some further musical instruction while building his musical experience. When he landed the dream role of Kapellmeister to Prince Esterhazy while still in his late 20s, this began a long period of financial stability with huge opportunities to refine his craft. The job entailed writing and arranging performances of many types of music - religious music for the chapel, operas for the large theatre (the Esterhazy's had a large estate) and chamber music for all kinds of events and celebrations. Allowed to experiment, find his own way and explore many different aspects of music, Haydn developed a keen grasp of musical knowledge. His style went through a number of phases as different facets of his musical growth came to the fore. Although it was a characteristic of music at the time that it obeyed the rules of "form", Haydn did not see these rules as constraints and frequently bent these rules and added variations and ideas so that his music never stagnated.

Haydn rarely travelled far from the Esterhazy properties although he did meet and form a mutually rewarding relationship with Mozart on a visit to Vienna. Haydn outlived several heads of the Esterhazy family and one change in leadership gave him the opportunity to travel further afield and he was to visit parts of Europe and especially London where he discovered the works of Handel. He made another fruitful visit to London later, where he composed and conducted a number of new symphonies. A sign of Haydn's fame in later life and the political times in which he lived, is that the invading Napolean put a guard around Haydn's house as the composer lay ill. No doubt the composer would have approved when Mozart's Requiem was later played at his funeral.

Haydn's music and influences:

Haydn was born during the time of J. S. Bach and the final stages of the Baroque Period and contrapuntal music was well established. Haydn was very much influenced by developments made by Bach's son C. P. E. Bach who, moving away from his father's teachings, brought drama and originality to his keyboard works and helped to establish early Sonatas and Symphonies in 3 movements. Another major influence on Haydn was Johann Stamitz who was a pioneer of the Symphony. For much of his life though Haydn was at work in the Esterhazy court, with only the occasional outside influence. He therefore relied heavily on his own thoughts and ideas, and the results of his own experimentations to drive his musical thinking forward.

Haydn's contact with other composers or their works frequently resulted in further inspiration, often mutual. As previously noted, he discovered the works of Handel while visiting London. Haydn too influenced many of his contemporaries as well as later composers. He was full of praise for the talents of Mozart, but Mozart himself was clearly inspired by the works of Haydn although he was to explore new directions himself. Beethoven was also greatly influenced by Haydn and studied with him for a time. Although in comparison with these great composers Haydn became comparatively forgotten, he nevertheless has much to offer especially his Symphonies, String Quartets and Keyboard Sonatas.

Frederic Chopin (1810 - 1849)

Frederic Chopin was born in Poland of a Polish mother, and his country of origin clearly influenced Chopin to the extent that he wrote many Mazurkas and Polonaises based on Polish dances. The other country he is associated with is France, his father being French and Chopin moving to Paris and spending much of his creative life there. Although often contrasted with the extrovert virtuoso Liszt, the reserved Chopin nevertheless had a creatively important social life in Paris with a number of lady friends. His longest lasting relationship was with the female novelist known as George Sand who dressed as a man. This relationship was important to Chopin, with Sand perhaps acting as a mother figure, and they were together for about 10 years. Chopin was not particularly healthy and developed tuberculosis, which he endured for several years before his death at the age of 39.

Chopin's music:

Chopin was a skilled pianist, and a large proportion of his works are for solo piano. Many of these works are fairly short in duration, such as the Preludes, Etudes, Waltzes, Impromptus, Nocturnes and Scherzos, as well as the previously mentioned Polish dance forms of the Mazurka and Polonaise. Chopin also developed a form called the Ballade which is a more extended work, fairly free in style like a stream of consciousness, but with an internal logic. He also wrote a number of multi-movement works including of course several Piano Sonatas. He was quite capable of writing for other instruments and did so at times, his two Piano Concertos (for solo Piano and Orchestra) being obvious examples.

Some of Chopin's solo piano works demonstrate a ressemblance to the similar works by the Irish composer John Field, so this was one musical influence. Perhaps the greatest influence in terms of composition was Bach, with Chopin's 24 preludes in all keys clearly mirroring Bach's 48 preludes and fugues. More particularly there is an abstract approach in many of his works (e.g. Preludes and Etudes) which bear a relationship with some of the forms (e.g. Preludes, Inventions and Fugues) that Bach used. These are abstract in the sense that they are heavily structured, but they are far from being emotionless. On the contrary, Chopin played his works with a strong "rubato" (free variations in speed) and his music demands this approach. This gives the performer another dimension of expression which makes Chopin's music very much of the Romantic era.

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Electronic Music

The invention of the Telephone in the 1870s showed that sound could be converted into electrical signals and back into sound again. The association between electricity and sound became stronger with the discovery of components which could create and manipulate those electrical signals. Electronics has completely revolutionised music production, from microphones and speakers to amplifiers, recording equipment, transmitters and receivers, and the development of electronic instruments. From early beginnings instrumental development split into a wide range of electric guitars, organs, pianos, drum machines and a host of electronic instruments with no real life counterpart. The possibilities have inspired many composers and musicians to experiment and to create. Electronic music has since expanded into a huge industry which nowadays touches virtually all recorded music in some shape or form.

Electronic Instruments and their Makers

The 19th Century saw some initial experimentation in the design of electronic instruments with varying degress of success. It was in the 20th century when things began to accelerate. One of the first electronic instruments to make a lasting impression on the industry was the Theremin, initially called the "Thereminvox" invented by Leon Theremin (an anglicised version of his Russian name Lev Sergeivitich Termen) in 1917. This has no keyboard but translates hand movement near its two antenae into sounds, so the player might appear to be waving their hands or "conducting" the music. It is a difficult instrument to master but is capable of subtle musical expression. The inventor moved to the US in 1927 for a period before returning to Russia in 1938. His promotion of the instrument kept it in the public consciousness and its unusual sounds caught the attention of composers looking to exploit those qualities in their works, particularly during the 1950s when Science Fiction film music utilised its other-worldly atmospherics. Due to renewed interest in this type of instrument it is still manufactured and available to purchase - e.g. check out the Moog Etherwave.

The Ondes Martenot was invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot in France. This was basically a keyboard instrument but had a number of adaptations making it capable of some unusual effects such as vibrato, portamento, glissando and timbre controls. It caught the attention of some of the avant-garde classical composers of the day (including Olivier Messiaen for example) who used this instrument in some of their works. One of the foremost artists on the Ondes Martenot was the sister of its inventor, Ginette Martenot. Apart from Classical music, the Ondes Martenot still makes an occasional appearance in some pop music and Barry Gary used the instrument in some of his music for the Gerry Anderson puppet series such as Thunderbirds. Laurens Hammond developed his first Hammond Organ in 1935. Its low price allowed it to enter the mainstream, becoming a huge commercial success in the process with various versions of the instrument appearing in live music venues and in homes.

The original Moog Synthesiser appeared in 1964 but it was a huge room-sized beast with great musical potential but limited to music studios by virtue of its size. The inventor Robert Moog brought out the Mini Moog in 1970 which overcame those limitations. Since it was capable of a far richer variety of sounds than the electronic organs of the day yet still of comparable size, it became a big commercial and artistic success. The term "synthesiser" (to describe this type of musical instrument) came into general use around 1967. It consists of one or more generators (or oscillators) which create the basic signal, and then a variety of controls to modify that signal or add effects. Frequently (although not always) a keyboard is used to trigger the signal, and a variety of knobs and sliders used to configure the sound.

Electronic Music and its application

The creative potential of electronic instruments has attracted a great number of composers, and those composers have exploited that potential in a large number of different ways. It's perhaps unsurprising that the group of composers known as experimentalists have sought to use electronics in weird and wonderful ways. Among composers to take this route are Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage and Steve Reich, and often their approach was to find novel uses for common pieces of electronic equipment such as microphones, speakers and tape recorders. Among the regular electronic instruments, the Ondes Martenot has come particularly close to acceptance as an instrument for the concert hall. Its invention in France saw its early adoption by composers such as Olivier Messiaen, Darius Milhaut and Pierre Boulez. Increasingly however, electronic instruments are used to create recorded rather than live music.

Film Composers initially sought to use electronic instruments for their unusual sound effects, which would help to emphasise otherworldly experiences. The Theremin was a favourite instrument in this respect. Miklos Rozsa used a Theremin in his music for the dream sequence (designed by the surrealist artist Salvadore Dali) in the Alfred Hitchcock film "Spellbound" in 1945, Dimitri Tiomkin used one on the original version of "The Thing" in 1951 and Bernard Herrmann used two Theremins on his soundtrack to The Day the Earth Stood Still also in 1951. The soundtrack to the movie "Forbidden Planet" in 1956 consisted of truly out of this world electronic effects created by Louis and Bebe Barron (a husband and wife team) using custom-built circuits. Herrmann also acted as a consultant when Oskar Sala used a Mixtur-Trautonium (an enhanced version of an instrument called the Trautonium) to create the eerie sound effects for the Hitchcock thriller "The Birds" in 1963. Similarly in television, Delia Derbyshire manipulated recorded sounds and pieced them together to create the broadcast version of Ron Grainer's theme tune for "Doctor Who" in 1963. She was the youngest member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop which went on to create music and sound effects for this series and many other television programmes.

Electronic instruments and sounds have also been sought out by creative popular artists. Brian Wilson of "The Beach Boys" used the unique sound of the Theremin on the band's appropriately named "Good Vibrations" single. The Beatles used a Mellotron on their "Strawberry Fields Forever" and a Moog synthesiser on the track "Because" on their Abbey Road album. Pink Floyd used the ubiquitous Moog synthesisers in a number of places as did Keith Emerson of "Emerson, Lake and Palmer" on their "Lucky Man" single. Gary Numan frequently used synthesiser sounds, such as on "Cars", and other artists too numerous to mention have also followed a similar path.

The Artists - Electronic Composers and Arrangers

It wasn't long before a new breed of composers emerged who specialised in using electronic instruments almost exclusively. Wendy Carlos was among these early pioneers who showed what Moog Synthesisers were capable of. She produced the album "Switched On Bach" in 1969 which took Bach's music from the 18th century and gave it a 20th century spin and demonstrated the expressive potential of these instruments. Her discussions with Robert Moog about the instrument and its usability shaped the development of later versions of his synthesiser range. Carlos west on to create electronic versions of Beethoven's music in the film "A Clockwork Orange" for Stanley Kubrick in 1971. Following her lead the Japanese composer Isao Tomita also used Moog synthesisers and other electronic equipment to create superb realisations of well-known Classical works in a series of albums beginning in the 1970s, including "Snowflakes are Dancing" (1974) based on the piano music of Claude Debussy and "The Planets" (1977) based on Gustav Holst's "The Planet Suite".

Rather than re-visiting existing classical music, other artists created their own original music solely for electronic instruments. Mike Oldfield created his "Tubular Bells" (1973) whose title track was used on the film "The Exorcist". Jean Michel Jarre released a number of albums including "Oxygene" in 1976 and "Equinoxe" in 1978. The composer Vangelis also specialised in the creation of electronic music and released a number of albums throughout the 1970s and composed electronic soundtracks for the films "Chariots of Fire" (1981) and "BladeRunner" (1982). In Germany groups such as Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream were taking electronic music in new and different directions. Artists including Rick Wakeman occasionally of Yes, Brian Eno initially of Roxy Music, and Enya initially of Clannad have also relied heavily on electronic sounds, and synthesisers were increasingly seen not as a specialist sound but as just another instrumental texture to add to the overall sound pallet.

Electronic Music Today

Electronic music has now largely moved from the analogue into the digital realm, and is frequestly recorded onto hard disk (or CD) rather than magnetic tape or vinyl. Instead of creating sounds directly using electronic circuitry, the value of every "sample" of a sound can be rapidly calculated using the power of a desktop computer. This shift from hardware to software has given electronic music even greater freedom, and has further reduced production costs and enabled many more artists to participate in the revolution. Electronic music has become mainstream now and is seemlessly integrated with acoustic recordings on film and television. Through the increasing use and manipulation of digital "samples", many software instruments can emulate orchestral instruments with increasing realism and indeed many of the pioneering synthesisers of Moog and other engineers have now been digitally recreated in software.

Popular music has been exploiting electronic instruments for many years now, and many styles rely heavily on electronic instruments. Modern Dance Music has split into a bewildering variety of genres (including "Techno", "House", and "Trance" sometimes collectively called Electronica) and many tracks from these styles are built in software using virtual instruments, with electronic effects processing. Every step from recording through to mixing and mastering is performed in the digital domain. Even the vocal line may be heavily processed electronically before the track is finalised. Sometimes this might be simply to enhance the vocals by removing any small imperfections, but at other times the voice may be altered to create an effect such as with a "vocoder". This kind of effect was also used by Wendy Carlos for the choral parts from Beethoven's 9th Symphony in "A Clockwork Orange". One thing is certain - Electronic Music is here to stay and it will continue to evolve in new directions in the years to come.

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Church, Wedding and Funeral Music

The Church and the Development of Music

Although music has no doubt been an important part of life for many cultures since antiquity, it was in the hands of the Western Christian Church that music underwent important developments that were to send it on a series of courses leading ultimately to classical forms and then on to influence today's myriad musical styles. An example of early religious music is unaccompanied plainsong, which under its alternative name of Gregorian Chant has made something of a comeback in recent times. While very different in sound from music as we know it today, it obeys early rules of form which were later to develop into important musical concepts.

A number of significant factors contributed to the church's being the natural incubator nurturing music in this way. Firstly the early church was in several ways like the universities of today, educating its members in many subjects, fostering further research and documenting findings, retaining libraries of its knowledge to pass on to future generations. Secondly music (perhaps because of its ability to heighten emotional experience - see What is Music?) has always been an integral part of the process of worship, and much energy was dedicated to this pursuit and developing those musical skills in order to perfect that means of worship. These two factors combined not simply to pass on existing musical traditions, but to further develop them in various directions.

It was in the hands of the church that musical notation was invented and then refined. Prior to this music was learned by example, and other than deductions which can be made from pictures and engravings of musicians on the one hand, and descriptions recorded in literature on the other, we know very little about how music really sounded before the invention of music notation.

Pivotal Composers in the history of the church :

One reasonably well-documented case of an early composer flourishing in a religious setting was Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) who became a nun attached to a monastery in Germany and later founded her own convent. Well educated, well-read and intelligent, she engaged the greatest thinkers and most influential people of the day in all manner of correspondence on a wide range of topics. On the creative side, she wrote poetry and set this and liturgical texts to music, writing hymns and religious songs. Since her music was recorded and preserved by the order, it represents some of the earliest known examples of such music.

Over the course of many years music was evolved in this environment, different forms were developed, the concept of harmony evolved from simple rules of accompaniment based on intervals, and melodies were combined in different ways to form polyphony. At the time of the reformation, the church underwent substantial change and this had knock on effects on the use of music. Two composers closely involved in such developments in England were Thomas Tallis and William Byrd. The pace of development continued right up to the Baroque and Classical periods, where even still important composers were frequently still employed by the church such as Vivaldi and Bach. It was not until the time of Beethoven that composers were relatively independent artists but traditions continue, and even Beethoven and later composers have composed Masses and Requiems. Many other classical composers have contributed to the repertoire of hymn tunes used in church including Mendelssohn, Sullivan and Gounod to name a few.

Church music today and Hymns :

As for today, the christian and other churches use a wide variety of music in their services and rituals. The central musical form in this context is the hymn, a simple religious poem set to music and often very similar to popular song forms consisting of four lines of verse followed by four lines of chorus, repeated.

Music for Weddings

Everything must be perfect for the big day and it's important to pay attention to every detail. The choice and type of music, and how it is played can make a big difference to the sense of occasion. Many options are possible from live music to recordings, depending on your needs and your budget. Here we present some ideas to help in this most important of choices.

Music Recommendations for Weddings:

Weddings are important events in our lives, and we celebrate them in a variety of ways. In many cultures weddings have a religious significance, but the use of music to enhance the experience is almost universal. There are pieces of music from the classical repertoire that have become so closely associated with the ceremony that just a few notes from the tunes will immediately make people think "wedding". There are many other works that can also be played at various points during the ceremony, often signifying enduring love or beauty, and frequently the happy couple will chose personal favourites which might have a particularly significance to them. The choice is very large, but here are a few traditional suggestions from the mfiles archives which you may want to consider, and within the sheet music pages you will find options to download the music in other formats.

Live music for Funerals

No Sad Songs brings a welcome new dimension to funerals. At short notice we can provide a fine live performance of almost any music or poetry you request. We possess a unique combination of musical knowledge and funeral experience which will help you plan the ceremony. We can take care of all musical details and also provide personally designed service leaflets. Our musicians, as well as being soloists, are drawn from the top British ensembles and choirs. Our music brings life, dignity and meaning to what can be a harrowing experience, and you will leave the service feeling better than when you arrived. Nothing can be more memorable than a private performance of a beautiful piece of music; it is the perfect way to say goodbye to someone you love. www.nosadsongs.co.uk

History of Funeral Music

Historically the view of music for funerals was very sombre. We expected to hear a few traditional hymns and perhaps a funeral march, and several classical composers have included music in this vein within their compositions. The most famous of these are from Chopin's Piano Sonata, Beethoven's Third and some of the symphonies of Mahler. These days there is much more flexibility, and the music for a funeral service or subsequent wake may include favourites of the deceased, songs ancient and modern, and general expressions of love, tenderness and even humour. Among celebrity examples of the latter trend are Glen Miller's "In the Mood" played at Peter Seller's service, not because he liked it but because he hated it and wanted to play a joke on his fellow Goons. Eric Idle's rendition of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" was especially poignant at the funeral of fellow Python Graham Chapman. It should also be noted that the approach to funeral music differs across the world, and a mood of joy is as common as one of sadness. Think of the funeral scenes in the Bond film "Live and Let Die" where a funeral dirge breaks out into lively Dixieland Jazz.

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The Period Of Classical Music

Like other human pursuits the creation of music has evolved over time. Music History Scholars look back over time, and attempt to break that evolution up into stages, in the same way Paleontologists and Historians classify other types of change. Such a classification system is always going to be a simplification. In reality music has evolved in a more gradual manner with a number of smaller revolutionary steps along the way. Still a broad classification is helpful to make sense of the complexity and give labels to different styles and techniques of music. Although there are some differences of opinion about the dates for different transitions (there is always a degree of overlap), most musicologists are agreed on the overall shape of musical development. Below is a quick summary of the key periods of musical development, but we also recommend that you take a look at our Classical Composers Poster which lists more than 900 composers.

The breakdown into music periods concentrates on Western Classical Music not because there wasn't music elsewhere in the world, but simply because that is the type of musical tradition which we focus on at mfiles. In our summary of that classification, we have used the following names and dates for the different musical eras:

Early Music (before 9th Century):

Although music has undoubtedly been a feature of human society for many thousands of years, not very much is known about its early history. It is not until the time of some the ancient civilisations that writings and sometimes pictures and artifacts have recorded the use of musical instruments. It is assumed that some music may have been improvisatory and that any technical aspects of music will have been passed via oral traditions, experienced musicians passing their skills by example to students. In this respect the learning of musical techniques is no different from other skills.

In the later centuries of this period, formal musical traditions were being incubated in the catholic monasteries of the time, and the church was to play a major role in the subsequent development of music. A formal approach to the unaccompanied singing of religious texts in Latin was developed, called Gregorian Chant named after Pope Gregory I of the 6th Century AD. This singing or "plainsong" often centred around a single note with a few notes either side of it. The equivalent of keys used at this time were called Modes which roughly corresponds to scales starting on different white notes on a piano.

Medieval or Gothic (9th to 14th centuries):

Over the years many human endeavours have had the benefit of language. In particular a written language can convey a lot of information about past events, places, people and things. But it is difficult to describe music in words, and even more difficult to specify a tune. It was the development of a standard musical notation in the 11th century that allowed music to be documented in a physical form. Now music could be communicated efficiently, and succeeding generations would know something about the music of their ancestors.

It was the demands of the church that required a musical notation, and so it was Church Music which was initially written in this form. The plainchant of this time was still unaccompanied, but new developments were starting to appear. The singing might alternate between two parts for solo singers or choirs, or two parts might be sung together in a style called Organum. In early Organum a second part simply followed the main part at a fixed interval so that the two parts moved in parallel. Later the supporting parts became more independent of the main one and this freedom led to early forms of harmony. Outside of the church's influence, Minstrels and Troubadours were entertaining in the castles of Europe, with music and song a key part of their unwritten repertoire.

Composers from this period were usually monks, and mostly their names were not written down. Among the few names we do know about today are Hildegard von Bingen (a nun and Abbess) and Guillaume de Machaut.

Renaissance (15th and 16th centuries):

The Rennaissance period is well-known as a time of rapid development in all forms of learning and the arts. There was a new self-sustaining freedom of expression which spread throughout much of Europe, and incubated many new ideas and schools of thought. The church was still very powerful and its influence was everywhere, yet the reformation brought a degree of freedom to religious thinking and some hymns which we recognise today were written in this period. A shift in power also meant that the secular needs of the Royal Courts were as important as those of the church in sponsoring new musical material. So as well as music for the Mass, there were Motets and Madrigals setting texts and verse to music, as well as a number of dance forms. Music styles became more complex with multiple parts for different instruments and further developments in harmony. Instruments such as the recorder and lute were common as well as early versions of today's instruments. The creativity of this period was given further impetus by the invention of the printing press which brought standardisation to the previously hand-written forms of musical notation, and allowed many more copies to be made.

Key composers of this period include Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, John Taverner, Josquin des Prez and Giovanni Palestrina.

Baroque (1600 - 1750):

In the arts the word Baroque often implies elaborated decorated. This is certainly true of some of the music of the period, but there were also many fundamental changes in its structure. The church's influence continued to decrease, and some composers of the day had a degree of freedom beyond their normal duties of composing for religious and secular occasions. In terms of style, further advances were made in turning the earlier "organum" into the modern harmony of today. Harmony was often indicated by the use of a figured bass to accompany a melody. A figured bass is a baseline with harmonies stated but not fully written out, giving scope for a degree of improvisation.

Instrumental suites consisting of a number of movements based on dances, and concertos created the basis for the classical forms to come. Some preludes and all fugues used multiple independent parts in a technique known as polyphony or counterpoint, and the rise of opera married song and story-telling into a new art form. Replacing the modal system, a new form of keyboard tuning was introduced based on splitting octaves into 12 equal intervals. Called Equal Temperament or Well-Tempered, this enabled different keys to be used without distortion, and it was easier to modulate between keys.

All of these separate developments made this a time of rapid change which laid the foundation for the Classical period to come. Key composers of the Baroque era include Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederic Handel, Johann Pachelbel, Georg Phillip Telemann, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Henry Purcell, Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, Domenico Scarlatti, Allesandro Scarlatti, Tomaso Albinoni, Claudio Monteverdi and Francois Couperin.

Classical (1750 - 1820):

Towards the end of the Baroque period, some composers were already setting off in new directions. The sons of Bach (CPE and JC) for example were already seeking new avenues away from the styles of their father, and a freer movement of artists and musicians between European countries helped to give them inspiration. During this classical period, the forms instigated by the church were still there, but for the most part the major composers of the day worked for the royalty or nobility of the time. Nevertheless public concerts were becoming more popular during this time, and concert halls and opera houses were attended in all major cities.

It is in this period that many familiar "forms" were conceived, and the music of this time was often thought of as being abstract and pure rather than depicting anything in particular. Indeed instrumental music was more common than vocal forms. The concept of a Theme and Variations reached its zenith in this period, Sonata Form was the foundation of Symphonies, Concertos and String Quartets as well as Sonatas, and works were not given titles but merely called things like "Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major". The strict definition of form (and the concept of music being abstract and detached) was seen as a major constraint by some later composers, but allowed the great composers of the day the creative tools to build many acknowledged masterpieces.

The great composers of this period were Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, Johann Christian Bach, Johann Stamitz, Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Luigi Boccherini and Christoph von Gluck with others such as Franz Schubert and especially Ludwig van Beethoven being seen as transitional and indeed instrumental in bringing about the Romantic period.

Romantic (1820 - 1910):

The Romantic era was another period of rapid evolution in music. From the foundations laid down by the Classical masters, composers were now composing from the heart. The fact that composers were no longer employees but independent meant that they could follow their own direction, composing music that pleased themselves. Of course composers still had to live so they accepted commissions, made deals with publishing houses, composed music with commercial value, and promoted their own music through concerts across Europe and other parts of the world. Many composers of the time were also very skilled performers or conductors and would therefore go on tour with their new works. Thus composers were among the celebrities of the time, and there a degree of showmanship involved with ever longer and more elaborate works played by huge orchestras and choirs.

Played using "modern instruments" the music of this period is very familiar to us today, especially those "popular favourites" which are still played frequently today. The language of this music is also familiar from its influence on music for film and television. That it was able to make this transition was the result of its dramatic power and ability to convey both the extremes and subtleties of emotion. This kind of power needed new techniques and audiences heard ever more complex harmonies and rhythms, and the leitmotif was invented. Many composers sought new directions, and different "schools of thought" branched out in different directions. Examples of this being the impressionists who used notes to paint musical pictures or impressions, and the nationals who embraced the folk tunes and styles of their own countries. Classical forms were also stretched so that for some composers the symphony became a symphonic or tone poem, which might tell a story for example. Not all the music of this time was orchestral. Chamber music for smaller forces was also very common, and musical miniatures for solo instruments or singers could be heard in smaller venues or played by ordinary people.

As well as Beethoven and Schubert, composers of the Romantic period include Frederic Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn, Hector Berlioz, Johannes Brahms, Edvard Grieg, Antonin Dvorak, Robert Schumann, Georges Bizet, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Anton Bruckner, Camille Saint-Saens, Gustav Mahler, Erik Satie, Claude Debussy.

Modern (1910 - present):

If the Romantic period saw the start of some fragmentation into different schools, this trend continued and accelerated into the modern era. There were those who continued to develop older traditions: the neo-classicists, the late romantics and the impressionist schools still prevailed, and those who took a new path with atonal music, serialism and later with experimental and minimalist music. Some composers created thematic material which could hardly be called "melodies", introducing dissonant intervals and different scales, and unusual rhythms and cross-rhythms were explored. There were composers, considered extreme by some audiences, who used traditional instruments in unconventional ways, overturned principles previously considered fundamental, and questioned the roles of composer, musician and listener. Experimental composers used randomisation techniques, or gave unusual instructions which might not include any conventional musical notation at all.

While classical music became more elite, popular music (which had been around for centuries) found a new mass audience, with the advent of recordings, radio and television. These new media had an insatiable demand for music, and film music in particular required much original music and recruited composers educated in the classical traditions. Popular music in turn had a strong influence on serious music, and jazz and other ideas became incorporated into the concert repertoire. The same electricity which powered the new media, also fuelled new gadgets for amplification and powered new instruments such as the electric guitar and synthesisers. More recently it has become possible to create and manipulate sound solely within computers, in a similar way to their use for creating graphics and animations for those same media. With all these developments music is much more accessible around the world, and as styles and techniques are invented, re-invented and combined this in turn stimulates further invention and discovery.

Composers of the modern period include Richard Strauss, Edward Elgar, William Walton, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Sergei Rachmaninov, Zoltan Kodaly, Igor Stravinsky, Bela Bartok, George Gershwin, Maurice Ravel, Francois Poulenc, Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, John Cage, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Benjamin Britten, Olivier Messiaen, Henryk Gorecki, Gyorgy Ligeti, John Corigliano, Aaron Copland, John Williams, Georges Auric, Darius Milhaud, Malcolm Arnold.

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Introducing to Reading Music

Some people think trying to read music is hard and difficult. The following set of pages will try to introduce the most important topics in reading music in a very easy to understand way. Don't expect to fly through all the lessons and understand. As with anything new, it'll appear complicated and complex but as you look at the examples and read the explanations it will make sense. With that said, lets go on and introduce the first lesson.

Clefs

Treble Clef
Bass Clef

staff

The treble clef:

The bass clef:

4 quarter notes per measure

Bottom Number	Value
1	Whole note
2	Half note
4	Quarter note
8	Eighth note
16	Sixteenth note

3 quarter notes per measure.

5 half notes per measure.

6 eighth notes per measure

	Common Time Same as 4/4 time
	Cut Time Same as 4/4 but everything is cut in half. Example: a half note = 1 quarter note, a whole note = 1 half note.

Types of Notes:

1 of the most important parts of music is learning the types and values of notes. Here you will gain some understanding of how the notes look and sound. The

icon means you can listen to it. All of the music samples are recorded at the same speed and are just 1 measure.

The whole note:

The half note:

The quarter note:

The eighth note:

The sixteenth note:

Looks like:

the same as an eighth note but has double curlies. Can also be grouped in 4, 3 or 2 but are joined by a double line.

Types of Rests:

For each type of note you learned beforehand there is a corresponding rest.

The whole rest:

(1 shown)

The half rest:

(2 shown)

The quarter rest:

(4 shown)

The eighth rest:

(8 shown)

The sixteenth rest:

Looks like:

a slanted line with a double dot. (16 shown)

Basic Counting:

One of the most obvious questions is how musicians know when to play. Well, its easy.. they learn to count the beats.

First let us present you with this.

Lets start with this example.

4 quarter notes per measure.

Let's intermingle the 2 quarter notes and a half note.

4 quarter notes per measure

Lets add in the eighth notes.

In this example there is something new. The + sign. It just means "and". If you said 1 + 2 + ... out loud it would sound like this.

Each eight note is 1/2 of a quarter note, therefore it takes 2 eighth notes to equal 1 quarter note.
Think of it like this: the 1 and the "and" are both half of one quarter note and together they form 1 quarter note and from the time sig we know there are 4 quarters per measure.

This may seem a little confusing now, but all of the sudden it will click. You will hit yourself in the head and wonder how you never understood it.

Let's introduce a mixed example.

When many different kinds of notes are intermingled, it starts to become tricky to count. Musicians will sometimes subdivide the notes so the counting flows more easily. Let's use the above example, but this time sub divide it.

Here would also be a good place to throw in a few examples with rests. These will just show the counting and will not explain them. Just think of the rests in terms of their corresponding notes and you'll have no problem!

Counting the 16th note.

Different time sigs and different notes.

Here you are.. the top of the note hill. Just look at these and the counting section is over!

Remember.. from this time sig you are counting the 8th notes.

Remember you are counting half notes, and therefore you have to subdivide the eighth notes and quarter notes accordingly.

Let's introduce a mixed example.

When many different kinds of notes are intermingled, it starts to become tricky to count. Musicians will sometimes subdivide the notes so the counting flows more easily. Let's use the above example, but this time sub divide it.

Here would also be a good place to throw in a few examples with rests. These will just show the counting and will not explain them. Just think of the rests in terms of their corresponding notes and you'll have no problem!

Counting the 16th note.

Different time sigs and different notes.

Here you are.. the top of the note hill. Just look at these and the counting section is over!

Remember.. from this time sig you are counting the 8th notes.

Remember you are counting half notes, and therefore you have to subdivide the eighth notes and quarter notes accordingly.

Shaping and Volume of Music

Volume of notes
f	Loud
ff	Loud Loud
fff	As loud as possible
p	Quiet
mp	Medium Quiet
mf	Medium Loud
pp	Quiet Quiet
cresc	Louder

Stuff that affects notes
sfz	Hit note then back way off and build back up
tr	Trill
vibrato	Add waves to sound
legato	Smooth

Stuff that affects the speed of note
poco.	Gradually
accel.	Faster
rit.	Slower
dim.	Diminish
soli	Shared solo in section
solo	1 person solo (wow)

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What is Music

What is Music?

WHAT IS MUSIC? Music is pure magic. It is a wonderful gift to humanity. Music moves us, and soothes us. It stimulates. It makes us want to dance or sing. It makes us feel happy or sad, inspired or uplifted. It affects our mood in all kinds of infinite ways. It can be exquisitely subtle or wildly raucous: from a lullaby, to a war cry for revolution.

Music is different things to different people: to Ian Skelly, author of the article ‘Beauty Speaks’, above all things music has a transcendental significance that is captured in the beautiful patterns of Nature and architecture – a kind of ‘frozen music’; to Mark Kidel, author of ‘Conversations and Crossroads’, music can bridge cultures in a universal ‘conversation’ that is beyond intellect or reason, but which is heartfelt; to Brian Eno, music brings the joy of unexpected and beautiful sound; and to singer/songwriters like myself and Howard Milner, music – and singing in particular – takes us to a world apart: a world beyond self and ego; a place of emotion that touches the soul.

I present to you an insightful glimpse into the world of music: yet it seems to me that the question ‘What is music?’ has no ultimately fixed answer, because although music can be defined in mechanistic terms as merely vibrations that are detected by the organ of Corti and assimilated by the brain’s cortex into what we hear, that is still only half the story.

It is no accident that the Latin word for breath – that prerequisite of music – is spiritus, for music invokes the spiritual in us. It is of the spirit and so is universal, other-worldly, nebulous and freely evolving. What a wonderful gift to humanity.

EVER SINCE I can remember, music has been an accompaniment to my life. It would be impossible for me to even try and conceptualise a world without music. If you have a natural aptitude and appreciation for it, then music simply draws you to it and connects. Watch a baby nodding her head, clapping her hands, or bouncing in response to a rhythm or melody.

Songs in particular contain something profoundly elemental. The singer actually ‘becomes’ the instrument, or vehicle of communication and expression. Through the combination of voice, lyrical content and poetic structure, melody, rhythm, the nuance of combined tonal qualities and phrasing within the breath, singers can transmit and translate thoughts and feelings, potentially elevating and transporting both the singer and the listener to another realm. Music really can lead us into another dimension.

Music also tells stories, breaks hearts, reduces us to tears, or seduces us into falling in love, over and over and over again. Music is a universal language. A human creation from a divine source… perhaps.

Music is a mystery, a code. A vehicle of spirit and soul. It is perceived through ‘hearing’ the vibration of sound, the most sublime resonance – from the eardrum to the brain. Music moves us beyond intellect to the heart-centre.

I’m not a music ‘expert’. I’m a music lover... A discoverer, an explorer. Music for me is pure ‘potentiality’. I can engage with it. I can commune with it. Sometimes, if I’m open to it, it takes me by surprise, and I step out of myself. Music is a friend, a companion, a guide and a teacher. A challenge, a landscape, a palette, a texture, a shape. Music is chord structure, harmony or dissonance.

Music is culture from every origin; it is identity and belonging. It is history and invention. Music is remembering and forgetting. Music is symmetry, rebellion, genius, prodigy, mastery, virtuoso, dazzling, breath-taking, spell-binding, and extraordinary.

PAUSE FOR A moment to ‘think’ of these sounds: harp, clarinet, kettledrum, xylophone, violin, guitar, trumpet, saxophone, sitar, oboe, flute... They are all uniquely different yet we can ‘hear’ them in our heads, just by thinking of them. Then think of the individual styles of various composers – Bach or Debussy, for example. We can tell the difference between Vivaldi, Couperin and Telemann – and they too have unique ‘sounds’. But what drew them to compose? How could Mozart play with such brilliance at the age of four? What made Miles Davis tick? These are the deeper questions that remain unanswered.

There are other questions that need to be asked: what does the wind sound like, or a dripping tap? Can this be a form of music too? A car door slamming, a baby crying, footsteps, whispers, a log fire crackling, animal sounds, city sounds, bar-room conversations, the roar of a football crowd, a familiar voice, the ocean, early-morning birdsong... Are these sounds musical to your ears?

How does music make you feel? Does it make you nostalgic? Where does it take you in your internal landscape? How can a snatch of music evoke a certain period in your life?

What does silence sound like? Have you ever experienced silence? Do you like it? Are your thoughts too loud? Where is your mind located? Is music located ‘inside’ your mind or ‘outside’ of you?

These are not just random questions; they are the kinds of question rarely posed when young people start to learn how to approach an instrument. Yet, I think they need to be asked, because music is so much more than just going through the motions of producing a sound. People may be able to play well mechanically – because they have learned to copy well – but in doing so they do not truly connect with the essence of music and express themselves.

WE HAVE BECOME so accustomed to recorded sound that it has become rather facile and formulaic. When you can literally access any piece of recorded music at the touch of a fingertip, something valuable gets lost or devalued in the process. Music has become ubiquitous. It’s in shops, restaurants, bars, airports, waiting rooms – in fact, anywhere that people gather. Sadly, in a way, music has become just another kind of social ‘filler’, like small talk or gossip. I get frustrated when I sit down to eat with a friend and we actually can’t have a conversation because ‘background’ music dominates the situation.

People ask me what kind of music I listen to, and quite frankly, it’s come down to the sustained resonance of Tibetan bowls. Why? Because it’s so... so pure and still and utterly beautiful. It is the essence of music full circle, back to the source, the universal vibration.

I guess what I’m saying is that as a music maker and music lover I have become more discerning. I don’t want to listen to music 24/7 just because it’s available to me and I can.

Sometimes I dip into the thing we call “music” and it still takes me profoundly by surprise… as if I were hearing it for the very first time.

Music

We are all aware that music and "atmosphere" go together. We might put on relaxing music for a quiet romantic dinner, but listen to something livelier while doing some physical work or exercise or out socialising in larger groups. You might have heard of farmers who increase production by playing music to their animals, recent studies showing that listening to fast music whilst driving increases the rate of car accidents, and the Mozart Effect claims to increase intelligence. While some claims may be exaggerated, there is no denying that music can suggest and affect our state of mind. But the reason for this is very mysterious. Why should organised sounds affect us to such an extent that billions are spent annually making music?

We're sure some professors may have written volumes about this topic but don't worry, we won't! We just think that it might be useful to record some thoughts on this question, since it is so relevant to other explorations on the mfiles web-site. We think that the main aspects of music which influence us can be summed up as:

Tempo & Rhythm
Pitch, Melody & Harmony
Pattern recognition
Culture aspects

and will explore each of these facets in turn.

Tempo & Rhythm
Music tends to have a steady tempo to it, often measured in "beats per minute". A simple observation is that most music is in the range of 50-200 beats per minute, the same as the extreme range of our heartbeats. In general too, the tempo of a piece of music roughly equates with the heartbeat associated with the corresponding physical state or emotion which the music suggests.

Anything in the range 60-80 beats per minute is calm and relaxed, less than 60 is often very relaxed, introspective or even depressed. 80-100 is moderately alert and interested. 100 upwards is increasingly lively, excited or agitated and, since we crave some degree of excitement from our entertainment, 80-120 is quite a common tempo, and even 120-160 is common in some energetic situations. We're not saying that there is an absolute correspondence between heartbeat and music tempo, but there is a strong degree of suggestion between the two. Music moves in time and suggests movement, and we tend to associate music unconsciously with movements made by our bodies while talking, walking, running, dancing, riding, etc.

To illustrate this, note that marches are in duple time (2/4 or 4/4 ) giving that "left, ..., left, ..., left, right, left, ..." feel. In contrast to this 3/4 time seems to completely lack that left-right feel, and we therefore frequently associate it with circular motions, like swirling waltzes, or roundabouts at the fun-fair. Music suggesting a horse galloping or a train ride is fast with more complicated rhythms representing 4 legs or several sets of wheels.

This latter example illustrates that while tempo sets the basic pace of music, there are many ways in which composers can alter and adjust this using different note patterns or rhythms. Syncopation is a familiar example with notes unexpectedly landing "off the beat", which adds complexity and interest to a basic beat, often turning a simple march tempo into a jaunty swagger. The rhythym of music can qualify the repetitive nature of the underlying beat by suggesting more or less frequent movement. Even though the tempo of a piece of music might be slow and relaxed, a high frequency of notes can suggest a degree of contained excitement within that relaxed state. But the combination of Tempo and Rhythm has an immediate almost physical impact on our perceptions.

Pitch, Melody & Harmony

Lots of things make noises but in general bigger objects make deeper noises, whether long columns of air or long strings in a musical instrument, big chests, large animal footsteps, or simply large objects generally banging together. Conversely, smaller instruments, short columns of air, short strings, small animals or objects make higher pitched noises. We tend to find large things more threatening than smaller things (part of our evolutionary heritage) so pitch on its own can affect how we percieve sounds and music, providing a basic scale from "high = light, happy, carefree" to "low = dark, sad, ominous". So Pitch on its own affects our perceptions.

A Melody consists of a linear sequence of tones. A good melody (even if it doesn't have words) is often one that we could hum, sing or whistle. In general we prefer melodies where the tones are reasonably close together, with a variety of nice harmonious intervals between them, and a rhythm similar to that of speach. The notes should not be in an extreme range and shouldn't have large awkward jumps between them. The notes should also have durations which are not too short and not too long (often in the range of 0.1 second to 2 seconds). In this way melodies are very similar to sentences that our brains are designed to speak and listen to, although instrumental musical can stretch those boundaries a little.

Unusual things happen when we combine tones of different pitches, called Harmony. Some combinations go well together and some don't. Those notes which combine well seem to be close to what's called the "harmonic sequence". The harmonic sequence is the completely natural set of different notes produced by something vibrating, and is most easily demonstrated musically using brass instruments. The lowest notes of this series are like those produced by a "natural" (without keys) instrument such as a bugle, and include octaves, fifths and thirds. These are just the notes which go well together to make "harmonious" sounds like major chords. On a stringed instrument you can demonstrate the lower notes of the harmonic series by playing the strongest "harmonics" of the strings which divide the length into fractions like halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, etc. These harmonics are always present to varying degrees within all notes, and their proportions help to give sounds their unique colour or tone.

A minor chord differs from a major one by using a "minor third" interval. The minor third is further up the harmonic sequence and therefore sounds remote from the original note, which goes to make the minor chord sound darker and less natural. Other combinations of notes are even more remote on this sequence and can give rise to musical clashes or "dischords". It is worth observing at this point that our equal-tempered method of dividing a music octave into 12 identical intervals produces some notes which are only approximately the exact values of the harmonic series, but nevertheless close enough to deceive most ears. Our long exposure to music based on these 12 notes means that they sound normal anyway.

Pattern Recognition

It is a matter of life and death to most animals that they can focus on important things and ignore unessential ones. Some of this might be instinctive and some learned by experience but at its root it is all about recognising and responding appropriately to certain patterns, maybe weather conditions or vegetation that indicate a good source of food, or shapes or sounds that might indicate danger from a predator.

Human brains in particular seem to have a highly developed and flexible pattern recognition capability. This aspect of our intelligence has allowed us to adapt to many different climates and conditions, make the best use of available shelter and resources, and to build language and culture to communicate to each other and succeeding generations. It also allows us to appreciate and to create pattern for its own sake in the form of visual and aural Arts. The simplest form of pattern is just repetition. If we see something familiar, then it triggers memories and related thoughts, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously. The repetition needn't be exact, but "similar" enough to trigger that familiarity.

Translating this into musical terms, if we hear a similar sound or group of sounds twice, then it clicks with our brains and we recognise this as a Pattern. The pattern is often fairly simple, consisting of a single note or a few notes in sequence. If the sequence of notes is too long, we will struggle to remember them. Conversely if we hear a short sequence of notes repeated many times then this becomes too boring (part of the background which we tend to ignore) and we only notice when there is a change to the sequence. You might have a picture hanging on your wall, but it is so familiar that you don't really notice it any more (until someone removes it). In the same way, we can block out repetitive noise (road traffic or next door's lawn mower) but immediately notice if it suddenly stops.

Some music is designed to be in the background, unobtrusively creating "atmosphere" or ambience in a restaurant, shop, lift or other public place. Such music should be ideally of a common volume, timbre and consistency, in other words "bland"! (It can be annoying if such music is too loud or otherwise obtrusive when you are trying to think or hold a conversation.) Other music is designed to grab your attention, by being loud or otherwise having an immediately distinctive pattern. These two types of music are often played together so that a memorable melody is distinctive and stands out from a simple accompaniment of chords and repeating percussion. Melody and accompaniment is like foreground and background in a visual scene.

In many ways writing music is trying to find a good balance between repetition (pattern) and novelty (not conforming to a pattern). If there is too much pattern then it becomes the norm, our brains then "tune it out" and it becomes part of the background while we turn our attention onto other things. If the music changes and something new arises, it will grab our attention again. But too much novelty is hard to relate to. Music which is ever changing without an immediately recognisable pattern can seem like just random "white noise" and again we "tune it out" as being uninteresting and relegate it to the background. Some composers have experimented with ways of generating musical patterns which might be mathematically perfect, but if our ears don't notice these patterns the music becomes an academic exercise and fails to move the listeners.

Musical patterns give rise to figures, phrases, themes, melodies, forms and styles and help musicians to provide both recognition and variety in music and optimise the listener's experience by providing works that seems consistent and balanced yet with interesting features to make the experience enjoyable. Sometimes people listen with concentration to music and become involved with it, but at other times the music is playing in the background or accompanying another activity. Nevertheless the unconscious experience can have an affect on us, largely due to Pattern Recognition.

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Learning Music is A Fun

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Some Famous Composers

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Beethoven's influences

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Musical Influences:

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)

The Bach family

Johann Sebastian Bach's music

Bach's legacy

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)

Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)

Haydn's music and influences:

Frederic Chopin (1810 - 1849)

Chopin's music:

Electronic Music

Electronic Music

Electronic Instruments and their Makers

Electronic Music and its application

The Artists - Electronic Composers and Arrangers

Electronic Music Today

Church, Wedding and Funeral Music

The Church and the Development of Music

Pivotal Composers in the history of the church :

Church music today and Hymns :

Music for Weddings

Music Recommendations for Weddings:

Live music for Funerals

History of Funeral Music

The Period Of Classical Music

Early Music (before 9th Century):

Medieval or Gothic (9th to 14th centuries):

Renaissance (15th and 16th centuries):

Baroque (1600 - 1750):

Classical (1750 - 1820):

Romantic (1820 - 1910):

Modern (1910 - present):

Introducing to Reading Music

What is Music

What is Music?

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