Style Periods essays

Style Periods essays Throughout its history, music has developed into cycle. This cycle is a return of fundamental and traditional ideas of an earlier time transposed into the present. It represents a style revolution in which a simple structure further develops to become a more complex system. At this point a revolution begins and a return to the simple, the more traditional form flourishes again. As a chain of events, the cycle is extremely prominent during the change of time periods between the Renaissance and Baroque. In 1581, a group of philosophers, musicians, artists, intellectuals, and scientists all met in Florence to discuss where society was headed. Resulting from what became known as the Florentine Camerata, a shift from the current complex system of the renaissance to that of a simple structure, which imitated ancient Greek society. Those such as Girolamo Mei, Giovanni Bardi, Vincenzo Galilei, Jacopo Peri, and Giulio Caccini, all discussed what would become new practices and experimentation in music (Florence 647). The Baroque Era began at the end of the 16th century and lasted to about 1750. It reflects a period of time when great changes occurred in music and culture, and bridges the gap between the music of the renaissance and the music of the classical era. The music of the early baroque was composed in a style that was very similar that of the renaissance era. The term Baroque has only recently become a means to determine the period of time. It is derived from the French baroque, which comes from the Portuguese baroco, meaning a pearl of irregular or bulbous shape (Baroque 172). The word Baroque was initially used to imply strangeness and abnormality. During this period, most music was written as ordered and requested by aristocratic courts, churches, and opera houses in which all patrons and musicians demanded new music. Composers were an integral part of the baroque society and ev...