help me doing a informative speech on Musical era

[cucudas]

i have this speech project coming next week.
i decided to explain musical era and their personalities
i'm going to introduce Baroque/classica/Romantic/Impressionism/Contemporary

Baroque-Bach
Classical - Mozart
Romantic - Beethoven / chopin
Impressionist - Debussy
Contemporary - Rachmaninoff

these are the composers i'm going to introduce

can anyone help me give a word or words that describe(s) each eras?
also i want to draw simple picture of each era..
can you guys give me some ideas please?
thank you!

[stevehopwood]

See if there is anything to help in the attachment.

The document is an outline of western classical music from the middle ages onwards. I wrote this for UK 'A' level students (16-19). Each chapter has a 'main characteristics of the period' heading.

If you need more information than this then you can do some research yourself; you will know what you are looking for.

Hope it helps.

Steve 

[prometheus]

Rachmaninoff isn't contemporary. He is not even modern. He is not even an impressionist. He was a romantic composer. And very conservative for his time, but not conservative enough for his own taste, but he felt forced by commerce, fasion and critics.

[pianistimo]

yikes.  i just typed a bunch of stuff and then accidentally hit the wrong button and lost it.  basically, i was saying that era's are really an arbitrary decision based on the death of a composer - but in reality, they often overlapped.  my teacher said that just because bach died in 1750 - doesn't mean the baroque era ended exactly then.  your teacher may be impressed you bring this out.

somehow - if i were giving a speech - i would try to keep everyone awake and would glom onto the idea of a rather unique speech instead of going thru each of the so-called 'eras' of music in a systematic way.  of course, that's my styel - be confusing.  i'd bring in a slide show - computer generated (forget the usual slide format name).  one person in our class did that (showing architecture, some instruments, manuscripts etc) and i'm sure they got an A.  it was unusual and not the 'expected' boring report.

also, you can quicly relay information via slide and  - and not have to say so much - you can put on one page (above) the 'normal' four eras  - and underneath everything that actually fit into and beyond those eras.  for instance the roccoco era is subsumed into the latter end of the baroque.  noone really talks about it. 

'when louis the XIV died in 1715, he left behind a reign that valued highly baroque (highly ornate furniture, etc) and even instruments were highly ornamented.  about 1723 the formalities of the court gave way to a gradual lowering of social barriers between the monarchy and the aristocracy.  it moved away from large palaces to the less formal town house, salon, or country estate.  rococo art stressed purely ornamental ideas in light, casual, irregular deisgns.  it's goal was to please.  lighter shades of color in painting and fabric prevailed.  it was artificial and unrealistic and characterized sentimentality and an artificial view of nature. 

in the middle country, english gardens became the vogue.  louis the XVI was tired of seeing artificially clipped hedges and trees and ordered them cut down.  the paintings of rococo style turned from life-size, formal portraits with stern expressions and elaborate dress to the smaller portrait (suitable for display in a more intimate room).  also, a more relaxed and natural position was favored.  paintings by boucher, fragonard, lancret, watteau were reasonably accurate representations of court life (garden parties, games, dances, pastoral scenes).  the informal summer residences and hunting lodges were in favor and this style was brought to the bavarian court about 1725.  lustschloss was a german term for this type of architecture.'  (copied notes)  also, 'the villiage soothsayer' (a song/play) written by jean jaques rosseau embodied many of the qualities expressed in the rococo spirit.  it was set to a simple and sentimental pastoral text and avoided grand gestures (such as the baroque) or extremes of emotion. 

[pianistimo]

other neglected parts of so-called 'eras' would be the short 'empfindsamer stil' - a sort of french gallant interest translated to german.  carl philipp emanuel bach (1714-88) was a composer of this style.  it is translated as sensitivity, sensibility, or sentimentality.  it was characterized by an emphasis on subtle nuances, shadings, and on the expression of a variety of sentiments in rapid succession (within one movement) of a composition.  the phrases tend to be short; dynamic; and rhythmic changes appear freqently.  in this age, according to bach's book 'the versuch', 'one must play from the soul, not like a trained animal.'  music had to appeal to the heart.  the free fantasy is a type of music that is suited to the many changes of affection through frequent changes in dynamics and tempo (and modulations).

also, we have 'sturm und drang' - a german literary movement that reached its height in the 1770's.  its artistic aims are to frighten, to stun, to overcome with emotion.  associated with this literary movement although not a part of it, was the reawakened interest in the works of william shakespeare.  the term comes from a play written in 1776 by freidrich maximilian klinger about the american revolution. 

in music, artistic parallels to the literary movement of sturm und drang are most often felt in opera, where several arts meet.  good examples of the idea of the movement might be found in the decent into hell in mozart's 'don giovanni' or the 'dance of the furies' in gluck's 'orfeo ed euridice (1762) as well as the molodramas of georg benda, such as 'ariadne and medea (1774-75).

the features that are prominent:
use of minor
syncopation
chromaticism
melody lines including wide leaps, abrupt and somewhat irrational changes
use of intensified contrapuntal textures
rapid tonal shifts
use of remote keys
unusual modulations

among the best known orchestral compositions are the symphonies of haydn.  (cast in minor and written around 1770) several are numbered by hoboken in the 40's.  they include the famous 'farewell symphony' (and several pieces by mozart of the same period - little g minor symphony K 183).  the composers who probably contributed most to this repertoire are the bohemian symphonist, jan vanhal, and the swedish composer joseph martin kraus.

esterhauzy symphonies of the sturm und drang period by haydn:

H 39, 35, 38, 59, 49, 48, 58, 26, 41, 44, 52    these are in order of dating somewhat with the last three around 1770-1771.  the last two are definately in minor key.

[barnowl]

Teacher: Pianistimo, that was a wonderful presentation. I liked the way you combined your slides, sounds as well as the perfumes so prevalent in each era. I don't know if you needed the pre-WWI Prussian drill team, the Elephant ventriloquist, or the gay Canadian Lumberjacks, to illustrate continental euphonics, but your entire presentation was most stimulating.

Uh...let's see who do we have next. <Checking his list> Ah!  Why it's Cucudas's turn.
Please come forward and begin.