Why classical music

Variety and contrast within a piece became more pronounced than before. Variety of keys, melodies, rhythms and dynamics using crescendo,diminuendo and sforzando , along with frequent changes of mood and timbre were more commonplace in the classical period than they had been in the baroque.

Melodies tended to be shorter than those of baroque music, with clear-cut phrases and clearly marked cadences. The orchestra increased in size and range; the harpsichord continuo fell out of use, and the woodwind became a self-contained section. As a solo instrument, the harpsichord was replaced by the piano or fortepiano. Early piano music was light in texture, often with Alberti bass accompaniment, but it later became richer, more sonorous and more powerful.

Importance was given to instrumental music—the main kinds were sonata, trio, string quartet, symphony, concerto, serenade and divertimento. Sonata form developed and became the most important form. He had no philosopher friends, but was a common man, a farmer who retired to the countryside. Read reviews of the latest Verdi recordings here. The operas Salome and Elektra are as stylistically advanced as almost anything being written in the first decade of the 20th century.

Read reviews of the latest Richard Strauss recordings here. It took me a while to realise what a wonderful composer Byrd is. Years later I listened endlessly to a recording of this piece by The Tallis Scholars and marvelled at its sonority and the tumbling counterpoint of the Nunc Dimittis.

I later came to know his Advent motet Vigilate. There are tactile, sensual and deeply human elements in his music that transmit beautifully to the flow of breath and to singing lines.

Read our reviews of the latest Byrd recordings here. It has a sort of elegance and strength in itself. He reveals the possibility of a different musical landscape. He influenced the post-War generation, the serialists, experimental composers and, beyond that, the minimalists.

His reach has been extraordinary. Read our reviews of the latest Webern recordings here. It struck me as unsentimental, sharp-contoured and authoritatively capricious. As a wind player, I could appreciate its skill in stretching each instrument just beyond its normal comfort zone, while its intersections of complex rhythmic and colouristic patterning seemed brilliantly realised.

At the time of creation, his work seemed completely independent, yet somehow it formed a bridge between many schools of thought. In my mind, his music is like an intricate tapestry, which gets magnified until you experience every element of the work. It requires commitment and concentration, as often his compositions last many hours.

But eventually, it is as though the music has shifted your perspective on reality. Read our reviews of the latest Feldman recordings here. Alban Berg brought into life the theoretical inventions of the Second Viennese School, creating tone serialism that was not only technically masterful and internally coherent, but also powerful in expression and full of artistic pleasure.

His music is a crucial link between eras — his forms and teleology are modern yet firmly drawing from the Romantic tradition. Read our reviews of the latest Berg recordings here. If you were to greet some aliens who had landed and wanted to know what classical music sounded like, you could do much worse than point them in the direction of Tchaikovsky. To me, growing up, it was just the quintessential, beautiful, extraordinary, poetic and melodic orchestral and vocal music.

He was obviously the master of melody, but I also love the heart-on-sleeve emotional palette and the rhythmic element of his music. You look at the dynamic markings in the scores; he has everything from ppppp to fffff! As a kid playing in orchestras it was like running a marathon, but always with a sense of inclusivity, fun and mischief.

Read our reviews of the latest Tchaikovsky recordings here. For me, John Cage was one of the two major artists of the 20th century — the other being Marcel Duchamp. I first met him in when he performed in London with Merce Cunningham.

Witnessing the invention and elegance of their collaboration, I knew that this was what I wanted to do, moving away, as I was, from what I felt were the confines of jazz and free improvisation. Read our reviews of the latest John Cage recordings here. His Livre pour Orchestre has since then remained one of the scores I regularly return to and in which I always find something new. What strikes me above all is what a humane composer he is.

Even in the most aleatorically advanced and texturally complex sections, his music communicates with such directness. He managed to continue composing exciting melodies right up until the s when almost all other 20th-century composers had moved away from tonally rooted themes. His melodies still sounded fresh and new. Plus, of course, his music has had a wide impact — Peter and the Wolf and Romeo and Juliet in particular have become part of the global musical canon beyond just the realms of classical music.

Read our reviews of the latest Prokofiev recordings here. Ives was possibly the most original composer in history, whose influence was only felt years after his astonishing works became known — a pioneer in new directions for orchestration, musical form, harmony, text setting especially his songs , rhythm, piano writing, tuning and more, predating many composers who later experimented in these areas. His Three Places in New England in particular remains a stunning model of his innovations.

Read our reviews of the latest Ives recordings here. Though minimalism is now a very accepted genre, I wonder how difficult it must have been as a young composer in the s to reject the assumed modernist path set by the likes of Stockhausen and Boulez , and instead start a new genus of music.

It must have taken enormous conviction and self belief. The result is a unique and lasting repertoire of stunning music that has credibility and universal appeal. His enduring influence cannot be underestimated. Read our reviews of the latest Glass recordings here. Gershwin is, for me, the first great American composer, whose career path followed a trajectory from Tin Pan Alley song-plugger into Broadway musicals and inevitably Hollywood film musicals.

His jazz-infused Rhapsody in Blue premiered at the holy grail of classical music, Carnegie Hall, and while his glorious opera Porgy and Bess may have opened on Broadway, it eventually reached the Met and the Royal Opera House.

Above all, there is the music itself: a tremendous achievement. His unique style never fails to both intrigue and move me. Read our reviews of the latest Gershwin recordings here. There are many reasons we might consider a composer great: innovation and originality, or the sheer consistency that results in many masterpieces. Without sentimentality or falsehood he reaches beyond the ears of his listeners to their hearts.

We sense that he empathises with the deepest longings of our souls, yet somehow still respects our boundaries. After his body began to break down in illness, his inspiration took flight. It was a high price for him, but for us, left with his miraculous works, it is a trove of priceless treasures. Read our reviews of the latest Schubert recordings here.

Independent, passionate and flouting the rules, Gesualdo found the perfect musical means to express his tortured soul. Sliding chromatic voices always react precisely to their text, building into almost Wagnerian harmonies. The greatest composers speak the musical language of their times but transform it to say something important and unique.

His madrigals are like really intense short operas. Read our reviews of the latest Gesualdo recordings here. His bravery and integrity are second to none; he discovered a new system of composition that has since proved to have its limitations but, at the same time, he initiated new and radical ways of thinking about how music is and should be composed.

Read our reviews of the latest Schoenberg recordings here. His soundworld is so distinctive that you know immediately who the composer is, and yet it seems infinitely variable — simply compare his Fourth Symphony with his Fifth , for example. It also has that quality of seeming to be very personal and for all its technical brilliance and skill, it was written for you to understand.

There is also that incredible ability to combine the ancient and new into a unique mix which is neither one or the other but could only be RVW. The Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis is the most obvious example of this. Read our reviews of the latest Vaughan Williams recordings here. Is there anyone like Chopin? He has been the gateway and inspiration for millions of pianists, teachers and composers of all stripes.

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