|
|
|
Welcome to OUR web site by Hana Nguyen and Anthony Hernandez! This page will inform you about "Classical " Music prior to WWI, including composers, which have been limited due to the number of composers out there, their compositions, venues, genres. We hope to include economics, daily life, both in Europe and America, and contrast that with the effect WWI had on "Classical" music and life. Classical music is almost like tofu. The majority of the American public has had no regular experience with it, doesn't know what goes into it, and expects it to be too bland, too sour, too mushy or just too weird.According to conventional wisdom, classical music is understood only by trained musicians, and patronized only by snooty rich people who don't know what's going on but who regard the concert hall as a cultural country club. There are many people out there that just can't figure out classical music because it's too deep. The classics are not for timid souls. I do think that classical music can be complicated, and a lot of classical pieces are long. By the early 19th century, the patronage system was in decline - as was the European aristocracy. Composers started getting jobs wherever they were to be had, instead of toiling exclusively for one prince or bishop. Orchestras retained some ties to municipal or regional governments, but became increasingly independent. Opera houses went commercial, like today's Broadway theaters. Classical music drew more and more middle-class audiences. The bourgeois businessmen and their families, wanting to affect an upper-class style, went to concerts and actually understood most of what went on because it was fashionable to develop some musical skills of their own, if only the ability to play simple Pieces on the parlor piano. With the advent of radio and recordings in our century, and an abundance of new leisure activities occupying our time, amateur, do-it-yourself musicianship has become less common. At the same time, composers have been exploring new sounds and techniques that are difficult to appreciate without any preparation. So we've reached the point at which no more than 10 percent of the American people listens regularly to classical music. And most of that listening time is devoted to composers who have been dead for at least a hundred years. Maybe you are about to help change all that; perusing these pages could be your first step. Before you set off, you might like to have at least a rough map of the historical terrain. Keep in mind that all we're covering here is the work of European and American composers. Other cultures all over the world have rich musical histories of their own, and in many places - India and Japan, for instance - those cultures, too, have made distinctions between their own classical and popular styles.
|
