Composers
This Austrian composer was known was a child prodigy best known for his elegant melodies and innovative operas such as The Magic Flute.
Who is Mozart?
This period lasting from roughly 500 to 1400 C.E. featured plainchant, monophonic choral music performed by male members of the Church singing in unison.
What is the Medieval Period?
This invention in the 1400s allowed music to spread faster and more widely than ever before, helping Renaissance composers share their works.
What is the printing press?
This term refers to the speed or pace of a piece of music — whether it’s fast, slow, or somewhere in between.
What is tempo?
Medieval plainchant was typically performed in this type of massive place of worship commissioned by the Catholic Church in many European cities.
What is a cathedral?
This German composer went deaf later in life yet wrote some of the most powerful symphonies ever, including the famous Symphony No. 9 with its "Ode to Joy"
Who is Beethoven?
This passionate era (1820–1900) emphasized emotion, individuality, and imagination, featuring composers like Chopin, Wagner and Grieg who expressed nationalistic pride through their music.
What is the Romantic Period?
This European city was the cultural and musical capital of the Classical Period, home to Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.
What is Vienna?
This word describes how loud or soft the music is, and composers use it to create contrast and surprise in their music with differing levels of intensity.
What is dynamics?
This large musical work, usually written for orchestra, has multiple movements and became one of the most important forms of Classical music thanks to composers like Beethoven and Mozart.
What is a symphony?
This American film composer brought classical orchestral traditions to Hollywood in scores for Star Wars, Indian Jones, and Jurassic Park.
Who is John Williams?
This era (1750–1820) valued clarity, balance, and form, with composers like Mozart and Haydn, as well as Beethoven early on in his career, leading the way.
What is the Classical Period?
This intellectual movement of the 1700s emphasized reason, science, and equality, inspiring Classical composers like Mozart and Beethoven.
What is The Enlightenment?
This musical element describes the color or quality of sound that makes one instrument or voice sound different from another.
What is timbre?
This precursor to the piano was popular during the Baroque Period and produces sound by plucking strings rather than striking them like a hammer.
What is the harpsichord?
This Baroque composer wrote over 1,200 works, including the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.
Who is Bach?
This ornate era (1600–1750) featured composers like Bach and Vivaldi, known for contrast, ornamentation, and the birth of opera.
What is the Baroque Period?
This 1789 uprising against the monarchy and aristocracy in France helped spread democratic ideas throughout Europe, inspiring composers to write music celebrating freedom and the common people.
What is the French Revolution?
This term refers to how layers of sound and different instruments are combined and arranged, and is generally described in terms of its complexity, i.e. simple vs. complex
What is texture?
This famous film director worked closely with American composer John Williams to create hit movies like E.T., Jurassic Park and the Indian Jones trilogy.
Who is Steven Spielberg?
This Polish-born composer wrote almost entirely for piano, expressing deep emotion and national pride through works like the Nocturnes and Polonaises.
Who is Chopin?
This period (1400–1600) emphasized humanism, vocal harmony, and the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman ideals reflected in music as well as artwork and architecture.
What is the Renaissance?
This 19th-century movement inspired composers like Poland's Chopin and Czechia's Dvořák to use traditional folk melodies and dances to express pride in their homelands.
What is Nationalism?
This concept refers to the organization of pitches around a central key or note, such as major or minor, an idea that emerged in the late Renaissance.
What is tonality?
These male singers were castrated before puberty to preserve their high voices, becoming the superstars of Baroque opera.
What are castrati?