Classical & Contemporary Music

• A composer is a person who creates music by writing down rhythms and notes for musicians to perform. They transcribe music in sheet form for instrumentalists to play, or for vocalists to sing
• Composers can also be conductors
• A conductor is a person who conducts an orchestra, chorus, opera company, ballet, or other musical group in the performance
• Famous composers from the classical era and their time period includes:

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
  • Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
  • Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
• Famous contemporary Jamaican composers and their genres include:

  • Sly Dunbar (Reggae)
  • Anju Blaax (Reggae)
  • Roberto Cowan (Ska and Rocksteady)
  • Tony Kelly (Reggae)
• Classical music composes of three major categories: Folk, popular and classical

  
  

  • Folk music is orally passed down through tradition and has no attributed author
  • Classical music is diverse, stretching from the 1200s to the present day
• Opera: A dramatic form of theatre where singers and instrumentalists perform a dramatic work that combines libretto
• Symphony: A large-scale orchestral composition typically consisting of several movements, performed by a full orchestra
• Concerto: A musical composition usually composed for a solo instrument accompanied by an orchestra
• Cantata: A vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements and often involving a choir
• A songwriter is someone who writes both the lyrics and the music of a song for musicians to perform
• A lyricist is someone who exclusively writes the words or lyrics of a song
• 3 Top Classical Composers:

  1. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750; Baroque Period)
  2. George Frideric Handel (1685-1759; High Classical Era)
  3. Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827; Late Classical Era, transitioning to Romanticism)
• What was Bach referred to as?

  The Pinnacle of Baroque music
• Counterpoint: The art of combining different melodic lines in a musical composition