Sunday, June 3, 2012

Type of classical music

The most common type of classical music played by an orchestra are symphony and concerto. A symphony involved a hundred of players but not all of them playing at the same time. The tune is passed around from group to group and occasionally is played by full together. A symphony composes of 3 or 4 pieces of tune with short silence in between.

A concerto include a soloist playing with the orchestra. Bach and composer of his time usually group 6 short pieces of music into a suite. Suite typically starts off with a prelude (before-play) follow by dances which merely means they have the distinctive rhythm of certain dances.

Sonata are pieces written for 1 or 2 instruments and contain 3 or 4 movements. A piano sonata is written for piano. A violin or cello sonota has piano accompaniment.

String quartet is written for 2 violin. 1 viola and 1 cello. String trio takes away the 2nd violin. String quintet is a string quartet with an additional cello or viola. Piano quintet adds a piano to the string quartet.

Fugue is a piece with lots of counterpoints.

Cantata is a choir with orchestra and sometime with a solo singer. Chamber music is written for about 10 musicians performing in a room. Lieder (German word for song) is a singer with piano accompaniment.

Classical music is identified by number preceded by K and BWV which representing different catelogues.  Opus means piece of works of a composer published in chronological sequence.  The piece of music usually is of high quality to get published.

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