CL on Music Theory Print

Clarinet concerto

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Baroque period#

The modern clarinet did not exist before about 1700. There are, however, a number of concertos written for its antecedent, the chalumeau. The discovery of six clarinet concertos by Johann Melchior Molter (1696–1765) — the first of which may date from 1743 — and three concerti grossi for clarinet and oboe written by Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) as far back as 1711 have led music historians to revise the common view that the first concerto for the instrument was written by Johann Stamitz around 1755.

Clarinet sonata

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Clarinet sonatas#

:This list is approximately in chronological order. * François Devienne: Clarinet sonata no.1 (1798), Clarinet sonata no.2 (1798) * Ferdinand Ries: Clarinet Sonata, Op. 29 (1808) * Carl Maria von Weber: Grand Duo Concertant, Op. 48 (1816) * Felix Mendelssohn: Clarinet Sonata (1824) * Alice Mary Smith: Clarinet Sonata (1870) * Charles Swinnerton Heap: Clarinet Sonata (1879) * Theodore Gouvy: Clarinet Sonata, Op. 76 (1882) *Ebenezer Prout: Clarinet Sonata, Op. 26 (1882) * Felix Draeseke: Clarinet Sonata (1887), which also can be played by a violin * Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Clarinet Sonata (c1893) * Josef Rheinberger:Clarinet Sonata, Op. 105a (1893) * Johannes Brahms: ** Clarinet Sonata No. 1 (1894) ** Clarinet Sonata No. 2 (1894) * William Henry Hadow: Clarinet Sonata (1897) * Max Reger: ** Clarinet Sonata No. 1 (1900) ** Clarinet Sonata No. 2 (1900) ** Clarinet Sonata No. 3 (1909) * Donald Francis Tovey: Clarinet Sonata in B-flat major, Op. 16 (1906) * Charles Villiers Stanford: Clarinet Sonata, Op. 129 (1912), which can also be played by a viola * Camille Saint-Saëns: Clarinet Sonata (1921) * William Henry Bell: Clarinet Sonata in D minor (1926) * Antoni Szalowski: Clarinet Sonatina (1936) * Mary Lucas: Clarinet Sonata (1938) * Paul Hindemith: Clarinet Sonata (1939) * Roger Fiske: Clarinet Sonata (1941) * Leonard Bernstein: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1942) * Aaron Copland: Sonata for Clarinet (Violin) and Piano (1943) * York Bowen: Clarinet Sonata (1943) * Sergei Prokofiev: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Op.94 (1943), originally for flute, also arranged for violin * Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 128 (1945) * Nino Rota: Sonata in D major for Clarinet and Piano (1945) * Mieczysław Weinberg: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 28 (1945) * Herbert Howells: Clarinet Sonata (1946) * Malcolm Arnold: Clarinet Sonatina (1951) * Roger Fiske: Clarinet Sonatina (1951) * Pamela Harrison: Clarinet Sonata (1954) * Iain Hamilton: Clarinet Sonata, Op. 22 (1955) * Ruth Gipps: Clarinet Sonata (1956) * Bohuslav Martinů: Clarinet Sonatina, H. 356 (1956) * Peter Maxwell Davies: Clarinet Sonata (1956) * Arnold Cooke: Clarinet Sonata in B flat (1959) * Francis Poulenc: ** Sonata for two clarinets, Op. 7 (1918/1945) ** Sonata for clarinet and bassoon, Op. 32 (1922/1945) ** Clarinet Sonata (1962) * Alun Hoddinott: Clarinet Sonata (1967) * Carlos Guastavino : Clarinet sonata (1970) * Vyacheslav Artyomov: ** Sonata for clarinet solo (1966) ** Confession, clarinet solo (1971) * Derek Bourgeois: Clarinet Sonata (1975) * Timothy Salter: Clarinet Sonata (1976) * Antony Roper (1921–2013): Clarinet Sonata (1979) * Joseph Horovitz: Clarinet Sonatina (1981) * Graham Whettam: Clarinet Sonata (1988) * Gary Carpenter: Clarinet Sonata (1991) * Adam Gorb: Clarinet Sonata (1991) * Marcus Blunt: Clarinet Sonata (1991) * Jack Cooper: Sonata for Clarinet (1999) * Michael Finnissy: Clarinet Sonata (2007) * Peter Klatzow: Sonata (2007) * Octavio Vazquez: Clarinet Sonata (2009) * Dieter Lehnhoff: Sonata Urbana for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 30 (2010) * Jennifer Higdon: Sonata for Clarinet & Piano (2011) * Hendrik Hofmeyr: Clarinet Sonata (2013) * Bruno Vlahek: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 42 (2015) *David Conte: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (2019) *Jerzy Fryderyk Wojciechowski: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano Op. 15 (2023)

Classic country

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Repertoire#

The classic country radio format can actually be divided into two separate formats. The first specializes in hits from the 1950s through the early 1990s, and focuses primarily on innovators and artists from country music’s Golden Age, including Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, George Jones, Kitty Wells, Charley Pride, Tammy Wynette, and Johnny Cash. The other focuses on hits from the 1990s and 2000s, some pre-1990s music, latter-day Golden Age stars and innovators such as Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck, Kenny Rogers, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Merle Haggard, to newer recurrent hits from neotraditional country and honky-tonk artists such as George Strait, Reba McEntire, Toby Keith, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, and Randy Travis.

Classic female blues

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origin#

Blues, a type of black folk music originating in the American South, were mainly in the form of work songs until about 1900. Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (1886–1939), known as “The Mother of the Blues”, is credited as the first to perform the blues on stage as popular entertainment when she began incorporating blues into her act of show songs and comedy around 1902. Rainey had heard a woman singing about the man she had lost, learned the song, and began using it as her closing number, calling it “the blues”. Rainey’s example was followed by other young women who followed her path in the tent show circuit, one of the few venues available to black performers. Most toured through a circuit established by the black-owned Theatre Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.) on the East Coast and through the South as far west as Oklahoma. A key figure in popularizing the blues was the composer W. C. Handy, who published the first of his blues songs in 1912. His compositions, notably “The Memphis Blues” and “St. Louis Blues”, quickly became standards for blues singers. By the end of the 1910s, blues songs had become staples of Black stage shows. Songs modeled on Handy’s were also performed and recorded by white vaudevillians, such as Sophie Tucker.

Classic hip-hop

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Format and targeting#

Doug Abernethy, general manager of Radio One’s Houston stations, described the classic hip-hop format as a parallel to the classic rock and classic country formats: these stations focus primarily on hip-hop from the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, featuring artists such as 2Pac, De La Soul, Mike Jones, LL Cool J, Ludacris, The Notorious B.I.G., Queen Latifah, and Salt-N-Pepa. Some stations may include small amounts of R&B in their playlists as well. Classic hip-hop stations are aimed primarily at listeners between the ages of 25 and 44; Tommy Boy Records founder Tom Silverman explained that hip-hop had “entered the realm of credible nostalgia”, going on to say that “I’m sure there are kids now who think 3 Feet High and Rising by De La Soul is a rite of passage, just like Led Zeppelin is”. The format also appeals to listeners who may not enjoy contemporary hip-hop: iHeartMedia senior vice president Doc Wynter explained that “hip-hop back then was about telling a story about your struggle and your family’s struggle. Now the reigning hip-hop king is a multiracial guy from Toronto who did not struggle.”

Classic rag

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anatomy#

In idealized form, the classic rag has the following structure: * It is set in time. * It starts with a four-bar introduction. * It continues with a pair of 16-bar themes, in the following sequence: ** An initial theme (or A strain). ** A repeat of the A strain. ** A second theme (or B strain). ** A repeat of the B strain. ** A restatement of the A strain. * It concludes with a pair of 16-bar themes in the subdominant key (the key with one additional flat, or one less sharp), commonly called the trio, in the following sequence: ** A third theme (or C strain). ** A repeat of the C strain. ** A fourth theme (or D strain). ** A repeat of the D strain. This can be written more succinctly as: INTRO AA BB A CC DD. Few classic rags follow this idealized form, which is only a generalization; there are a number of standard variations: * The introduction may be longer or shorter than four bars, or may be omitted altogether. * The C and D strains may continue in the original key rather than use the subdominant key. * The D strain may return to the original key rather than stay in the subdominant key. * The D strain may be omitted altogether, or replaced with a restatement of the A or B strain. * Some repetitions of strains may be omitted, usually one of the repeats of the A strain. * Brief transitional phrases may be inserted between strains. In the later years of ragtime, under the influence of Tin Pan Alley, a shorter three-strain form (omitting the D strain) became common.

Classical music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ideological origins#

Both the English term classical and the German equivalent Klassik developed from the French classique, itself derived from the Latin word classicus, which originally referred to the highest class of Ancient Roman citizens. In Roman usage, the term later became a means to distinguish revered literary figures; the Roman author Aulus Gellius commended writers such as Demosthenes and Virgil as classicus. By the Renaissance, the adjective had acquired a more general meaning: an entry in Randle Cotgrave’s 1611 A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues is among the earliest extant definitions, translating classique as “classical, formall , orderlie, in due or fit ranke. Also, approved, authenticall, chiefe, principall”. The musicologist Daniel Heartz summarizes this into two definitions: 1) a “formal discipline” and 2) a “model of excellence”. Like Gellius, later Renaissance scholars who wrote in Latin used classicus in reference to writers of classical antiquity; These three composers in particular were grouped into the First Viennese School, sometimes called the “Viennese classics”, a coupling that remains problematic by reason of none of the three being born in Vienna and the minimal time Haydn and Mozart spent in the city. While this was an often expressed characterization, it was not a strict one. In 1879 the composer Charles Kensington Salaman defined the following composers as classical: Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Spohr and Mendelssohn. More broadly, some writers used the term “classical” to generally praise well-regarded outputs from various composers, particularly those who produced many works in an established genre.

Classical music in hip-hop

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Style#

Typical classical music elements in hip hop include orchestral sounds, either sample-based or recorded live. In addition, some hip hop songs may feature orchestral elements by way of sampling progressive rock tracks, such as Kanye West sampling “21st Century Schizoid Man” by King Crimson on his 2010 song “Power”.

History#

It is believed that Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force were the first to sample classical music into their tracks in the 1980s, in particular to the 1982 track “Planet Rock” with a sample of Stravinsky’s The Firebird. Another early example of classical music in hip hop is from the 1996 The Simpsons episode “Homerpalooza”. In the episode, rap group Cypress Hill steal the London Symphony Orchestra, which was intended for Peter Frampton. With the orchestra in tow, they perform their 1993 hit “Insane in the Brain” with orchestral backing. In 2023, Cypress Hill is vying to make what started out as a joke a reality by teaming up with the LSO to record an authentic orchestral version of “Insane in the Membrane”. Warren G would embrace classical hip hop in a 1997 duet with Sissel on the track “Prince Igor”. Starting in the 2000s, classical music in hip hop became more prominent as Nas, Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West and Jay-Z (with Alicia Keys on “Empire State of Mind”) exploring the genre. In addition to West’s progressive rock sampling track “Power”, he also worked with progressive rock artist Manfred Mann on his 2014 album Lone Arranger. More recently, classical orchestras have also begun incorporating hip hop into their programs. The National Symphony Orchestra, for example, collaborated with Common and Pharrell Williams in the late 2010s, and the Nashville Symphony has experimented with hip hop as a means of attracting a younger audience.

Classical music in Kosovo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Prior to any developments of classical music in Kosovo there were amateur activities preceding them that set the environment for later developments, such as the activities of the wind orchestra “Bashkimi” in Skopje, the wind orchestra of Gjakova led by Palok Kurti, the boarding school “Kosova” in Krumë, the fanfare band “Kosova” in Kukës and the Albanian Catholic Church in Prizren. The first radio station that opened in Prizren in 1945 is also important to the beginnings of professional music in Kosovo, as for a long time much of the musical life in Kosovo was tied to this institution.

Classical music of Birmingham

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Medieval music#

Although few records have survived to illustrate the culture of medieval Birmingham, there is evidence to suggest that the town supported a significant culture of religious music throughout the late Middle Ages. Chantries were established in 1330 and 1347 for priests to sing divine mass at the church of St Martin in the Bull Ring, and the Guild of the Holy Cross, established in 1392, funded a further chantry of three priests and an organist, who are also likely to have provided secular music for festivities in the Guild’s hall on New Street. Most remarkably the town had an organ builder by 1503 – a highly specialist and unusual trade for what was then a medium-sized market town. None of these medieval musical institutions survived the Reformation of the 1530s. Although evidence of music in 16th and 17th century Birmingham is even more scant than for the earlier period, records survive to show the existence of a band of minstrels in the town in 1609, and at least one ballad was written in the town to commemorate the Battle of Birmingham of 1643 during the English Civil War.

Classical music of the United Kingdom

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early and Baroque music#

Music in the British Isles, from the earliest recorded times until the Baroque and the rise of recognisably modern classical music, was a diverse and rich culture, including sacred and secular music and ranging from the popular to the elite. Each of the major nations of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales retained unique forms of music and of instrumentation, but British music was highly influenced by continental developments, while British composers made an important contribution to many of the major movements in early music in Europe, including the polyphony of the Ars Nova and laid some of the foundations of later national and international classical music. Musicians from the British Isles also developed some distinctive forms of music, including Celtic chant, the Contenance Angloise, the rota, polyphonic votive antiphons and the carol in the medieval era and English madrigals, lute ayres and masques in the Renaissance era, which led particularly to English language opera developed in the early Baroque period. The dominant figure in classical music in the later baroque era, and beyond, was the German-born George Frideric Handel (1685–1759).

Classical music of the United States

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Beginnings#

The earliest American classical music consists of part-songs used in religious services during Colonial times. The first music of this type in America were the psalm books, such as the Ainsworth Psalter, brought over from Europe by the settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The first music publication in English-speaking North America — indeed the first publication of any kind — was the Bay Psalm Book of 1640. Many American composers of this period worked (like Benjamin West and the young Samuel Morse in painting) exclusively with European models, while others, such as William Billings, Supply Belcher, Daniel Read, Oliver Holden, Justin Morgan, Andrew Law, Timothy Swan, Jacob Kimball Jr., Jeremiah Ingalls, and John Wyeth, also known as the First New England School or Yankee tunesmiths, developed a native style almost entirely independent of the most prestigious European models, though it drew on the practice of West Gallery music composers such as William Tans’ur and Aaron Williams. Many of these composers were amateurs, and many were singers: they developed new forms of sacred music, such as the fuguing tune, suitable for performance by amateurs, and often using harmonic methods which would have been considered bizarre by contemporary European standards. Some of the most unusual innovators were composers such as Anthony Philip Heinrich, who received some formal instrumental training but were entirely self-taught in composition. Heinrich traveled extensively throughout the interior of the young United States in the early 19th century, recording his experiences with colorful orchestral and chamber music which had almost nothing in common with the music being composed in Europe. Heinrich was the first American composer to write for symphony orchestra, as well as the first to conduct a Beethoven symphony in the United States (in Lexington, Kentucky in 1817). Because the United States is made up of many states, some of which were parts of other empires, the classical music of the nation has derived from those empires respectively. The earliest classical music in what is now California, and other former Spanish colonies, was the renaissance polyphony of Spain. This sacred classical music was provided to support the liturgy of the Catholic Church. Other early American composers: William Selby, Victor Pelissier, John Christopher Moller, Alexander Reinagle, Benjamin Carr, William Brown, James Hewitt, Mr. Newman (Three Sonatas, for the piano forte or harpsichord, New York 1807).

Classical period (music)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Classicism#

In the middle of the 18th century, Europe began to move toward a new style in architecture, literature, and the arts, generally known as Neoclassicism. This style sought to emulate the ideals of Classical antiquity, especially those of Classical Greece. Classical music used formality and emphasis on order and hierarchy and a “clearer”, “cleaner” style that used divisions between parts (notably a clear, single melody accompanied by chords), brighter contrasts, and “timbre” (achieved by the use of dynamic changes and modulations to more keys). In contrast with the richly layered music of the Baroque era, Classical music moved towards simplicity rather than complexity. In addition, the typical size of orchestras began to increase, The sonata itself continued to be the principal form for solo and chamber music, while later in the Classical period, the string quartet became a prominent genre. The symphony form for orchestra was created in this period (this is popularly attributed to Joseph Haydn). The concerto grosso (a concerto for more than one musician), a very popular form in the Baroque era, began to be replaced by the solo concerto, featuring only one soloist. Composers began to place more importance on the particular soloist’s ability to show off virtuoso skills, with challenging, fast scale and arpeggio runs. Nonetheless, some concerti grossi remained, the most famous of which was Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola in E-flat major.

Clausula (music)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

Clausulae emerged from the compositional practices of the Notre Dame school in Paris c. 1160–1250 (during the stylistic period known as ars antiqua). The composers Léonin and Pérotin in particular contributed heavily in composing clausulae. Rather than write entirely new music, the preference was to take existing music, that is, plainchant melodies, and develop or improve upon them. According to an English author known as Anonymous IV (c. 1280), “Pérotin was better at making clausulae than Léonin had been in that Pérotin was better at making better discant style of clausulae.” The appearance of clausulae provided the first rhythmic system. Pérotin’s clausulae make use of the rhythmic modes, whose strict metrical feet necessitated that voices change notes together (discantus). This was in contrast to the earlier practice of one voice moving in a free rhythm above a “tenor” voice (Latin tenere: “to hold”) sustaining the long notes of a cantus firmus. The tenor line was often repeated to allow for expansion of the clausula; this was the origin of the technique known as isorhythm. The scholarly debate over the origin of the clausula continues. In particular, rather than seeing clausula as a genre, the part composed in the style of discantus with a definite final cadence was called clausula. Thus, there are more studies that relate specifically to the motet, rather than studies of the origin of the clausula. One scholar writes that “the motet arose through the addition of Latin texts to the melismatic upper voices of the two-voice clausulae and was thereby able to explain for the first time the previously baffling and unprecedented verse structures of many motet texts.” Others claim that by the removal of the text of a motet in its original composition, it was changed into a clausula.

Clawhammer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Technique#

A common characteristic of clawhammer patterns is the thumb does not pick on the downbeat, as one might in typical fingerpicking patterns for guitar. For example, this is a common, basic 2/4 pattern: # A fingerpicked melody quarter note on the downbeat, # Other strings strummed with the fingers, for a total of roughly an eighth note starting on the upbeat, # A thumbpicked eighth note, usually on the shorter fifth string, to complete the bar. Here, the thumb plays the high drone on the second “and” of “one and two and”. This combined with the middle finger strumming provides a characteristic “bum-ditty bum-ditty” banjo sound, whether actually played on a banjo or on a guitar. The fretting hand also comes into play in this approach to playing banjo. The fretting hand can hammer, pull off, slide and bend individual and groups of strings. This can create the illusion that the picking hand is doing something more than down-picking. Clawhammer vs. frailing While the terms “clawhammer” and “frailing” can be used interchangeably, some old-time players draw a distinction between the two. Some players further distinguish between “drop-thumb” and “clawhammer.” The term “double-thumbing” is sometimes used interchangeably with “drop-thumbing,” though double thumbing refers specifically to striking the fifth string after every beat rather than every other beat, while drop thumbing refers to dropping the thumb from the 5th drone string down to strike a melody note. Confusing the nomenclature further are the many older traditional terms which include “overhand,” “knockdown”, “hoedown,” “down-picking,” “rapping,” “beating,” “stroke style,” and “clubbing.” This is reflective of the informality of old-time music in general, as each player develops an idiomatic style.

Cleveland punk

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

During the 1970s, Cleveland earned the nickname “Bomb City U.S.A.” for its organized crime and economic struggles, which were exacerbated by deindustrialization that produced the Rust Belt. The city’s air and water supply were contaminated by pollution so severe that the Cuyahoga River caught on fire several times during the late 1960s. Artists drew upon Cleveland’s harsh, smog-infested, industrial landscape to create jagged, chaotic, and dissonant music informed by gritty urban decay. Other influences included Ghoulardi, a popular fictional character of disc jockey Ernie Anderson, who hosted “Shock Theater,” a television program that screened late-night horror films on TV-8, the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, from January 13, 1963, through December 16, 1966.

Close and open harmony

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vocal music#

Origins of this style of singing are found in harmonies of the 1800s in America. Early radio quartets continued this tradition. Female harmonists, like The Boswell Sisters (“Mood Indigo”, 1933) and The Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce (“Who? You That’s Who!”, 1927), who then became Three X Sisters, performed and recorded this style in the 1920s, and continued it on commercial radio of the 1930s. Close harmony singing was especially popular in the 1940s with pop and R&B groups using the technique quite frequently. The Andrews Sisters also capitalized on a similar style with swing music. Many gospel and soul groups in the 1950s and 60s also used this technique, usually 3- or 4-part SSAA or TTBB harmony with one person (either bass or lead) doing a call-and-response type lead. Examples of this are The Blind Boys of Alabama, a group that is still recording today. Artists like The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel used close harmony, echoing their chosen role-models, The Everly Brothers. The Louvin Brothers were a duo that used close harmony in the genre of country music. Barbershop harmony has a unique harmonic structure: the melody is in the 2nd tenor or “lead” voice, while the 1st tenor takes the next part up, usually in 3rds, with the baritone and bass voices supporting. The bass line tends to be more rhythmic and covers the root notes of the harmonic progression, providing more “support” and independence than in classical vocal music, since Barbershop is usually sung a cappella. Public domain pieces, such as “Sweet Adeline”, and newer pieces are abundant. National organizations promote the music with local chapters in many communities. Soul and gospel groups flourished in America in the years after World War II, building on the foundation of blues, 1930s gospel songs and big band music. Originally called “race music” by white mainstream radio and its target market, it was the precursor to rock and roll and rhythm and blues of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, influencing many English and American artists of that era. They often used the more traditional TTBB or SSAA 4-part structure, but with heavy use of solos and call-and-response, which is rooted in the African American church. These groups sometimes sang a cappella but also used instrumental backing, especially when recorded by the bigger labels. Pop music and doo-wop can be seen as a commercialization of this genre.

Cloud rap

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

In 2010, music blogger Walker ‘Walkmasterflex’ Chambliss coined the term “cloud rap” in a blogspot post describing the music of Main Attrakionz member Squadda B, whom he labelled “the king of cloud rap”. Chambliss thought he was using a phrase from a 2009 interview by music writer Noz, where rapper Lil B showed him a CGI image of a castle in the clouds and said “that’s the kind of music I want to make.” He later used the term for the Space Age Hustle blog’s compilation album, 3 Years Ahead: The Cloud Rap Tape released in 2010, which helped popularize the genre. The label “cloud” denotes distinct characteristics of the genre such as its “hazy”, ethereal aesthetic (in terms of both aural and visual expression) and its ambiguity as a genre without clearly defined borders.