Music history period (c. 1650 to 1900)
In European
art music
, the
common practice period
was the period of about 250 years during which the
tonal system
was regarded as the only basis for composition. It began when composers' use of the tonal system had clearly superseded earlier systems, and ended when some composers began using significantly modified versions of the tonal system, and began developing other systems as well. Most features of
common practice
(the accepted concepts of composition during this time) persisted from the mid-
Baroque
period through the
Classical
and
Romantic
periods, roughly from 1650 to 1900. There was much stylistic evolution during these centuries, with patterns and conventions flourishing and then declining, such as the
sonata form
. The most prominent unifying feature throughout the period is a
harmonic
language to which
music theorists
can today apply
Roman numeral chord analysis
; however, the "common" in common practice does not directly refer to any type of harmony, rather it refers to the fact that for over two hundred years only one system was used.
Technical features
[
edit
]
Harmony
[
edit
]
The harmonic language of this period is known as "common-practice
tonality
", or sometimes the "tonal system" (though whether tonality implies common-practice idioms is a question of debate). Common-practice tonality represents a union between harmonic function and
counterpoint
. In other words, individual melodic lines, when taken together, express harmonic unity and goal-oriented progression. In tonal music, each tone in the
diatonic scale
functions according to its relationship to the tonic (the fundamental pitch of the scale). While diatonicism forms the basis for the tonal system, the system can withstand considerable
chromatic
alteration without losing its tonal identity.
Throughout the common-practice period, certain harmonic patterns span styles, composers, regions, and epochs.
Johann Sebastian Bach
and
Richard Strauss
, for instance, may both write passages that can be analysed according to the progression I-ii-V-I, despite vast differences in style and context. Such harmonic conventions can be distilled into the familiar
chord progressions
with which musicians analyse and compose tonal music.
Various popular idioms of the twentieth century differ from the standardized
chord progressions
of the common-practice period. While these later styles incorporate many elements of the tonal vocabulary (such as major and minor chords), the function of these elements is not identical to classical models of counterpoint and harmonic function. For example, in common-practice harmony, a
major triad
built on the fifth
degree
of the scale (V) is unlikely to progress directly to a
root
position triad built on the fourth degree of the scale (IV), but the reverse of this progression (IV?V) is quite common. By contrast, the V?IV progression is readily acceptable by many other standards; for example, this transition is essential to the
"shuffle" blues
progression's last line (V?IV?I?I), which has become the orthodox ending for
blues progressions
at the expense of the original last line (V?V?I?I).
[1]
Rhythm
[
edit
]
Coordination of the various parts of a piece of music through an externalized metre is a deeply rooted aspect of common-practice music.
Rhythmically
, common practice
metric structures
generally include:
[2]
- Clearly enunciated or implied
pulse
at all levels, with the fastest levels rarely being extreme
- Metres
, or
pulse groups
, in two-pulse or three-pulse groups, most often two
- Metre and pulse groups that, once established, rarely change throughout a
section
or
composition
- Synchronous
pulse groups on all levels: all pulses on slower levels coincide with strong pulses on faster levels
- Consistent
tempo
throughout a composition or section
- Tempo, beat length, and measure length chosen to allow one
time signature
throughout the piece or section
Duration
[
edit
]
Durational patterns
typically include:
[3]
- Small or moderate duration complement and range, with one duration (or
pulse
) predominating in the duration hierarchy, are heard as the basic unit throughout a composition. Exceptions are most frequently extremely long, such as
pedal tones
; or, if they are short, they generally occur as the rapidly alternating or transient components of
trills
,
tremolos
, or other
ornaments
.
- Rhythmic units
are based on
metric
or
intrametric
patterns, though specific
contrametric
or
extrametric
patterns are signatures of certain styles or composers.
Triplets
and other extrametric patterns are usually heard on levels higher than the basic durational unit or pulse.
- Rhythmic gestures
of a limited number of rhythmic units, sometimes based on a single or alternating pair.
- Thetic (i.e., stressed),
anacrustic
(i.e., unstressed), and initial rest rhythmic gestures are used, with anacrustic beginnings and strong endings possibly most frequent and upbeat endings most rare.
- Rhythmic gestures are repeated exactly or in
variation
after contrasting gestures. There may be one rhythmic gesture almost exclusively throughout an entire composition, but complete avoidance of repetition is rare.
- Composite rhythms
confirm the metre, often in metric or even note patterns identical to the pulse on specific metric level.
Patterns of
pitch
and
duration
are of primary importance in common practice
melody
, while
tone quality
is of secondary importance. Durations recur and are often periodic; pitches are generally diatonic.
[4]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- Harbison, John (1992). "Symmetries and the 'New Tonality'
".
Contemporary Music Review
.
6
(2): 71?79.
doi
:
10.1080/07494469200640141
.
- Kliewer, Vernon (1975). "Melody: Linear Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music". In
Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music
, edited by Gary Wittlich, pp. 270?301. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
ISBN
0-13-049346-5
.
- Kone?ni, Vladimir J. (2009).
"Mode and Tempo in Western Classical Music of the Common-Practice Era"
(PDF)
.
Empirical Musicology Review
.
doi
:
10.18061/1811/36604
.
hdl
:
1811/36604
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 5 March 2016
. Retrieved
17 February
2015
.
- London, Justin (2001). "Rhythm, §II: Historical Studies of Rhythm".
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
, second edition, edited by
Stanley Sadie
and
John Tyrrell
. London: Macmillan Publishers.
- Perle, George
(1990).
The Listening Composer
. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
ISBN
0-520-06991-9
.
- Tanner, Paul, and Maurice Gerow (1984).
A Study of Jazz
. Dubuque, Iowa: William C. Brown Publishers. Cited in Robert M. Baker, "
A Brief History of the Blues
".
TheBlueHighway.com
.
- Winold, Allen (1975). "Rhythm in Twentieth-Century Music". In
Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music
, edited by Richard Peter Delone and Gary Wittlich, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
ISBN
978-0-13-049346-0
. pp. 208-269.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Definition
| |
---|
Major periods and eras
| |
---|
By country
| |
---|
Students by teacher
| |
---|
Performance
| |
---|
Related
| |
---|
|