What are the types of classical music played in the Concerts?
Although the history of orchestration goes back to ancient Greece, the first semblance of a modern orchestra came in the early 17th Century. It was the Italian opera composer Claudio Monteverdi who first assigned specific instruments to perform his music piece.
A brief history of classic music
Although many refer 1750 to 1820 as the classical period of music, it actually started in the early 11th Century. Renowned as the Gothic Period, it gave birth to the method of notating music. Later during the Renaissance (1400–1500s) the prominent composers such as Gabrielli and Palestrina started giving classical music a shape. The classical period was preceded by Baroque which saw the birth of great composers such as Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi.
The classical period is renowned for its acclaimed composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Haydn. Since its birth, classical music has seen many great compositions. There are many modern composers who keep creating new classical-music.
Did You Know? There are several different types of classical concerts that are differentiated based on the number of performers, instruments, and genres.
- Chamber Orchestra Concerts
- Children’s or Family concerts
- Choral music concerts
- Concert band concerts
Here are the 10 Classical Music Forms most prevalent in the Concerts
Rick Perdian is here with the essentials of orchestra’s management. We help you bring the list of ten different types of classic music most prevalent in the concerts.
Aria
Aria is defined as a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompaniment, normally part of a larger work. It is generally led by the Soprano or the lead character of the opera.
It serves as both the dramatic enhancement of the storyline and the solo feature of the soprano. Any opera you have watched must have an aria. They’re often filled with exciting high notes and the audience goes berserk afterward.
Cadenza
The cadenza is an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists in the concerto. It is also a chance for the soloist to show off. This takes place at the end of one or more movements when there comes a dramatic moment. The orchestra stops playing and the soloist begins playing his or her piece. The orchestra joins the soloist with a cue from the conductor cues the orchestra and they join to finish off that movement.
Concerto
A concerto is an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists (usually pianist, violinist, or cellist) accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. A typical concerto has three movements, traditionally fast, slow and lyrical, and fast. There are two kinds of the concerto that were composed in the Baroque period: concerto grosso and solo concerto. The solo concerto is a common type of concerto that one gets to see where a single soloist is accompanied by an orchestra.
Almost every symphony presenter tries to get the most glamorous soloist for their opening night concerts in the fall.
Chamber music
As the name suggests, “Chamber music” features a small group of instrumentalists, often three or four. It can go up to around eight instrumentalists. It doesn’t have any conductor as the players are expected to work it out themselves
The most popular chamber music works are sonatas for piano and one other instrument such as violin or cello and string quartets.
Chamber music festivals are often held in the summer where the audience can get to hear established soloists together in a cozy environment. Instrumentalists enjoy playing more chamber music than their usual concerto or solo recital gigs.
They generally sit together and recite. People wait for months to see the established musicians play together.
Movement
The four movements of the symphony are
- 1st movement — allegro (fast) in sonata form.
- 2nd movement — slow
- 3rd movement — minuet (a dance with three beats in a bar)
- 4th movement — allegro.
Most works of music are broken up into “movements”. The common pace of each movement is fast-slow-fast like in a sonata or a symphony where the break after each movement gives the players a moment to re-tune their instruments.
The audiences are often confused if they should applause in-between the movements as they aren’t sure if a movement is complete. There are times where it’s definitely better to enjoy the silence between movements. Many purists dislike mid-piece applause. Despite much confusion among the audience, the musicians are always grateful the audience bought tickets and came out to see them perform.
Sonata
Sonata is a musical composition comprising of a solo instrument or a small instrumental ensemble. It typically consists of two to four movements, or sections, each in a related key but with a unique musical character. If it’s not for the piano, then it’s usually accompanied by the piano.
Sonata is a piece played as opposed to a cantata, a medium-length narrative piece of music for voices with instrumental accompaniment, typically with solos, chorus, and orchestra.
There are three basic elements of sonata form: exposition, development, and recapitulation. Each form is stated, explored or expanded, and restarted.
Opera
Opera is probably the most popular classical music concert for its theatrical and musical ensemble. An Opera piece basically features performers enacting dramatic plots by their singing either big melody (arias) or semi-sung/spoken moments of dialogue, called recitative. Every opera piece contains singers with Bass, baritone, Tenor, Alto, Mezzo-Soprano, and Soprano voices, where soprano is often given by female performers with the highest vocal range of all voice types.
Opera follows the norms of theatrical play where the performers use costumes, sets, and staging. They come in all varieties, from the light comic operas to the most epic and time-consuming that goes on for hours.
Unlike the popular belief “The Phantom of the Opera” isn’t an opera piece but there are snippets of opera singing in the musical.
Opus (or Op.)
In musical composition, the opus is the “work number” that is assigned to musical composition to group the chronological order of the composer’s works. It’s a cataloging system meant for composers.
The plural of “opus” is “opuses” in English. This is because the Latin plural is opera which is rather confusing to English speakers as the word is already used in musical terminology.
Overture
The overture was originally the instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. It’s also considered an introduction to something more substantial because it precedes the rest of the performance. In the early years, the overture served as the lobby “gong” to signal the audience to take their seats. Later on, it served like a musical “appetizer” — a short introduction before the main event. In opera, the overture was often written last, so it would include a few themes that you’re about to hear in the opera.
Symphony/Philharmonic/Orchestra
A Symphony is a music piece written for a large group or ensemble of string, brass, wind, and percussion players. It generally implies a really big group of players.
Philharmonic is often used if there is more than one large group within one city, and it’s a way to tell them apart.
An orchestra is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families, including bowed string instruments such as the violin, viola, cello, etc.
RickPerdian.com is the perfect music travel consultant. With years of experience in the best orchestra events in the USA, we can definitely guide you with different types of classical music prevalent in concerts and musicals.
