Baroque & Classical Composers
This was very well-known Classical court composer throughout his career not just in Austria, but also in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and especially England. He was also best known for composing his 94th Surprise Symphony.
Franz Joseph Haydn
A vocal and orchestral work that incorporated dramatic action, costumes, and scenery.
Opera
This was a type of form commonly used in the first movement of sonatas, symphonies, concertos, and string quartets.
Sonata Form
A multi-movement work written for solo instrument, or solo instrument with piano.
Sonata
This is music that is harmonic or with chordal writing.
Homophonic
This composer was a significant figure in the transition from the Classical era to the Romantic era, having significant works from both periods.
Ludwig van Beethoven
An orchestral piece that had a set of contrasting dances combined to form a single multi-movement work.
Dance Suite
This musical form is a statement of a theme, followed by a series of small changes made to that original theme.
Theme & Variations
A multi-movement work for an orchestra in the pattern of “fast-slow-dance-fast”.
Symphony
This is the most important note/chord in a scale, also known as the "chord of rest/resolve".
Tonic
This Baroque German composer created some of the best organ literature of all time, and his compositions continue to be studied by musicians and composers today.
Johann Sebastian Bach
This genre featured a small group of soloists (two to three) with the orchestra as accompaniment.
Concerto Grosso
This form is stately dances generally in triple meter
Minuet and Trio
A work for a small group of instruments with one player on each part.
Chamber Music
The process of moving from one key to another.
Modulation
A native Baroque German composer that mastered the Italian musical style (particularly opera), and was internationally famous for it.
George Frideric Handel
This was a widely used french orchestral genre. These were used to create a festive atmosphere for the opening to an opera, but then became its own independent genre.
Overture
This part of Sonata form contains these qualities:
Provides the return to stability
Return to tonic key and the theme of the exposition
Sometimes an exact repetition of the exposition
Section B would be in the tonic key instead of modulating
Would resolve the movement
Recapitulation
A multi-movement work for an orchestra and soloist in the pattern of “fast-slow-fast”.
Symphony Concerto
A musical motive usually found in the narrative and dialogue parts of opera and oratorio, sung in the rhythm of ordinary speech with many words on the same note.
Recitative
A famous Italian composer best known for pioneering opera music and is an essential part of the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque period.
Claudio Monteverdi
This was a choral work generally intended for a worship service.
Cantata
Sonata form occasionally has these two additional elements.
Introduction and Coda
This vocal genre changed from its beginnings in the Baroque era, allowing more complex orchestral parts as accompaniment.
Opera
A part in a Symphony concerto where the orchestra stops, and the soloist engages in an extended virtuoso passage, highlighting his/her technical abilities.
Cadenza