Essay Example on Evolution of Musical Composition: Middle Ages to 20th Century

Introduction

Musical composition can be taken to mean the conception or creation of a piece of music. The finished product can also be referred to as a musical composition. Throughout history, musical composition has taken societal and cultural perspectives. Also, musical composition has dramatically evolved over the years. In this light, this paper seeks to discuss the vocal, instrumental, religious, and social evolution of musical composition from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. For the purpose of this paper, musical composition will refer to the conception and creation of music. Generally, this process incorporates the ordering of pitched sounds in a particular musical time and space.

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Middle Ages

The medieval plainchant, characterized by monophonic settings was the primary form of composition in this period. Since the church primarily controlled musical composition, rhythmic distinctiveness was not emphasized. The monophonic plainchant was, however, later superseded by multipart music. The addition of rhythm to the structure of music later in the period contributed significantly to the growth of multipart music (Burkholder et al., 80). Basic polyphonic concepts that are still associated with European music also emerged during this era. Christian singers started using organum to enhance their chants towards the end of the 1st millennium, a factor that led to the synchronization of voice parts (Burkholder et al., 39). The relationship between melody and text also grew during this era leading to the stylistic distinctions that are held until today. Composition in this period was also greatly influenced by Middle Eastern practices. Throughout this period, there was little distinction between instrumental and vocal composition. Since the church was the primary employer of composers, secular music was primarily shunned (Yardley 43).

The Renaissance Era

As compared to the Middle Ages, musical composition in this era was more sophisticated. The Italian cantilena, English harmony, and French rhythmic sophistication were combined and dominated the continent for decades (Burkholder et al., 180). Though the melodic modes of the Middle Ages were retained, there was greater development of structure and text in the Renaissance polyphony. Though the church still held huge influence in musical composition, the secular musical practice grew drastically and led to the development of harmonic notions seen in modern-day music (Stras 393). As texts incorporated more emotionalism, chordal progressions were discovered and explored by more composers.

The Baroque Era

This period saw the abandonment of the traditional polyphony. Chord progressions grew further and led to the dominance of bass-oriented music. The composers primarily focused on the lower and upper tones. The composition in this era employed layered melodies, where different musicians would repeat notes throughout the composition (Pepelea 95). Incorporation of instruments also grew drastically during this period. For instance, plucked instruments accompanied heroic recitations. Instrumentalists also increasingly improvised, leading to the emergence of virtuosity. The abandonment of the rationalistic and highly structured polyphony of the earlier eras gave singers more freedom to explore their creativity. Foundations of the sonata, symphony, and the concerto were also laid during this period (Burkholder et al., 180).

The Classical Era

Musical composition in this era highly featured balanced eclecticism. Categories that had emerged in the earlier periods such as the symphony and the French opera experienced exponential growth during this period. The roles of homophony and polyphony became more specific, and various stylistic traits were fused. The resulting harmonically-oriented music was polyphonically animated and had impacts, both vocally and instrumentally, on the future generations of music (Burkholder et al., 494). Compositional procedures also attained a higher level of universality and stability, and composition started being viewed as a separate discipline altogether. With the establishment of institutions such as the National Conversancy of Music in France, a model of teaching musical composition that has survived until today was born. Clear melody lines were preferred over subordinate chordal accompaniment, and hence music in this period was less complex, lighter and clearer than in the Baroque period.

The Romantic Era

As in all other forms of art, composers became more conscious of their work's social function during this period. Resultantly, composition became more inventive and expressive. For instance, Beethoven's works mostly reflected his personal artistic concerns and were not controlled by patrons. This was a departure from the earlier periods where musical composition was meant to satisfy the needs of particular individuals or institutions. Composers in this period viewed themselves as poets and hence sought to manipulate musical sounds. They also got their inspiration from literature and art (Xin et al., 52). Modulatory and harmonic procedures were the main ways of defining musical structure in the period.

The 20th Century

Most composers in this era did not give much attention to the concept of key. Instead, they freely used all notes. The growing political nationalism also affected musical composition. Resultantly, distinctive folk-music elements that had been ignored in the earlier centuries were appreciated more, even by the elite in the society (Burkholder et al., 763). Generally, precedence was given to melodic-rhythmic energies during the period. As technology advanced, total serialism would dominate composition. Increasingly, musical composition also sought to borrow different elements from the previous eras.

Conclusion

As shown in the discussion, musical composition has greatly evolved over the centuries. While newer techniques have been discovered along the way, the evolution was characterised mainly by a combination of elements from different periods. For instance, some elements of the modern-day musical composition can be traced to as far as the Baroque period. Besides, the paper has shown that musical composition has been significantly affected by religious, political, and social factors throughout history.

Works Cited

Burkholder, Peter J., Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca. History of Western Music: Tenth International Student Edition. WW Norton & Company, 2019. <https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=15ibDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=+musical+composition+IN+THE+baroque+period&ots=91R7e01mER&sig=u_NHFe5baTjQiY_ljwhkMZaqQhc>.

Pepelea, Roxana. "Argumentative patterns of musical discourse illustrated in emblematic creations of the German Baroque." Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov, Series VIII: Performing Arts 11.2 (2018): 95-104. <https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=734115>.

Stras, Laurie. "Renaissance Music and Musicology: Challenges and Opportunities." I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 22.2 (2019): 393-402. <https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/705435>.

Xin, Guobin, Chen Yanhui and Lianhu Xu. "Music in Western Culture." Introduction to Western Culture (2018): 22-56. <https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-8153-8_2>.

Yardley, Anne. Performing piety: musical culture in medieval English nunneries. Springer, 2016. <https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=4ksBDgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=+musical+composition+IN+THE+MIDDLE+AGES&ots=cWjrf_BXZ4&sig=tqrppTjoaTE5feChJXszsUjQJ2U>.