The History of Music Part 1

History is always fascination, so the history of music very interesting. Two areas that will be looked upon will be the Baroque and Classical era with emphasis on Stradivarius, Vivaldi, Mozart and Beethoven. The Baroque era brought about the sounds of various wood instruments that their sounds have never been duplicated, namely by the artisans Antonio Stradivari. His craftsmanship of the violin produce the finest sound and a lasting history, namely because his instruments nearly 650-700 are still being played by a select few. Also, another famous man name Antonio produced and taught new methods of writing and interpreting music. Antonio Vivaldi, however, he did not just write and teach the well to do he concentrated his efforts to the orphaned and downtrodden, which makes him even more impressive, because instead of choosing students from the crème de la crème, he chose men and women who had not chance to perform and made them in something spectacular!

The classical era produced prodigious due to the efforts of many who had a passion for musical enlightenment, and afforded the blessing of being a prodigy during this magnificent time of growth of passionately creation of timeless sounds. That is practice and research still to this day. The Mozart Effect is a study conducted that links cognitive analysis suggesting by listening to his music fifteen minutes or so prior to a major test, your reasoning abilities are enhanced. It is suggested that by listening to classics such as Beethoven’s Fur Elise constructs a child’s mental capacity. While these studies and suggestions are wonderful, the magnitude of these greats what they contributed to society is outstanding and applauded time and time again, because of the gifts that they all gave within their eras.

Texture in music was important for producing various melodies and notes. Vivaldi Four Seasons was created by use f polyphony, homophony harmonizing the notes to provide a description in sound of the various times of the year. Johann Bach also incorporated these melodies producing melodic sound mainly homophonic for church organs. Stradivarius learned his trade from a family called the Amati’s. They were able to make as well as teach how to make a violin, but could not in a sense mass produce the same richness, but Stradivari could do this on a regular basis, his skill was unmatched for his time. And I do not think it will ever be matched, but it gives many a goal to try and obtain.

The classical era, produced Mozart a prodigy that was mentioned earlier was instrumental to our societies study of cognitive study for enhance thinking. There seemed to be a little mystic around the death of Mozart, but mainly is a myth. But after Mozart came Beethoven who surely was inspired by the name of Amadeus Mozart, though he was not a child prodigy in his own right Beethoven in his teens started on the path to composing classical pieces and paved the way for the Romanticism period. With the use of the polyphony, homophony, basso continuo, modes, major, minor, dynamics, terraced dynamics, organ, harpsichord, trumpet this epitomizes the baroque period incorporating various groups to create a dynamic of loud and soft music orchestrated to play in harmony with one another creating a lasting effect to the listener along with stories being told by the playing of a musical story. Giving birth to new eras of music, but never being able to duplicate the quality, richness, and dedication that went into each and every composed piece of music or the care into the skillful sculpting of an instrument created by hands, something that is being sought to mimic but at best can only as the tinkerer and mastermind Guarneri produce a product such as that era at random.

The masters have left a bar that will help to produce countless numbers to reach a standard that is so far removed it is almost impossible to obtain. But hopefully men and women will continue to seek those standards producing and composing with passion for the masses. Enlightened as we may be, may we understand the compassion and perseverance these men and women had for something they truly loved. Looking at the history of music makes me take a second look at how I view things today; one should strive to do their very best, and not take the easy way out, but contribute to the society you live in. The difference you make could make a world of difference to others.