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106-613: The TSO performs music of a variety of styles, including classical , big-band , folk , jazz , pop , mariachi , and also commissions and performs new works by living composers. The TSO performed its first concert on January 13, 1929 with Camil Van Hulse at the podium. The program, performed at the Tucson High School auditorium, featured 60 volunteer musicians from throughout the community (including co-founder Juliani on double bass). The Orchestra played Schubert's Rosamunde Overture and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. Local papers hailed

212-472: A harpsichord , and were often led by the lead violinist (now called the concertmaster ). Classical era musicians continued to use many of the instruments from the Baroque era, such as the cello, contrabass, recorder, trombone, timpani, fortepiano (the precursor to the modern piano ) and organ. While some Baroque instruments fell into disuse e.g. the theorbo and rackett, many Baroque instruments were changed into

318-500: A concert, but was met with opposition. After a yearlong standoff (which included 19 musicians and the conductor walking out), a coup de grace was found with a performance by John Charles Thomas, the most famous baritone at the time. By raising ticket prices (to $ 10, from $ 5) and filling 2200 seats, the TSO went into the black and proved that it was possible to pay the musicians. A budget was agreed upon in 1951 that included musician pay. 1952 saw

424-556: A fixture in the community (and a frequent guest conductor following his departure). During the 1990s, the organization was also able to purchase an administrative and rehearsal space that it still occupies today: The Tucson Symphony Center. Its outreach and education programs expanded, including the launch of the Young Composers Project. Thanks in part to grant funding, the TSO performed in communities throughout Southern Arizona, including Ajo, Bisbee, and Nogales. George Hanson,

530-516: A living construct that can evolve with the times". Despite its decline in the last third of the 20th century, there remained at the end of the century an active core of composers who continued to advance the ideas and forms of modernism, such as Pierre Boulez , Pauline Oliveros , Toru Takemitsu , George Benjamin , Jacob Druckman , Brian Ferneyhough , George Perle , Wolfgang Rihm , Richard Wernick , Richard Wilson , and Ralph Shapey . Two musical movements that were dominant during this time were

636-610: A number of music styles that were previously understood as "popular music" have since been categorized in the art or classical category. According to the academic Tim Wall, the most significant example of the struggle between Tin Pan Alley , African-American, vernacular, and art discourses was in jazz . As early as the 1930s, artists attempted to cultivate ideas of "symphonic jazz", taking it away from its perceived vernacular and black American roots. Following these developments, histories of popular music tend to marginalize jazz, partly because

742-634: A process that climaxed in the early 20th century with very large orchestras used by late romantic and modernist composers. A wider array of percussion instruments began to appear. Brass instruments took on larger roles, as the introduction of rotary valves made it possible for them to play a wider range of notes. The size of the orchestra (typically around 40 in the Classical era) grew to be over 100. Gustav Mahler 's 1906 Symphony No. 8 , for example, has been performed with over 150 instrumentalists and choirs of over 400. New woodwind instruments were added, such as

848-513: A remarkable marriage of boldly distinctive melodic lines weaving in counterpoint yet creating a coherent harmonic logic . The use of written notation also preserves a record of the works and enables Classical musicians to perform music from many centuries ago. Although Classical music in the 2000s has lost most of its tradition for musical improvisation , from the Baroque era to the Romantic era, there are examples of performers who could improvise in

954-687: A series of concerts embracing the large Hispanic and Latinx community. Maestro Gomez has also invested his energies in the Young Composers Project, commissioning several alumni for works on the main series. The TSO presents a number of new collaborations annually, including performances with Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo High School, the Tucson Girls Chorus, the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus, the Tucson International Mariachi Festival, Orkesta Mendoza, and Calexico. In 2022,

1060-567: A special nod to the orchestra's first performance. By the early 1980s the budget surpassed $ 500,000, earning the status of regional orchestra from the American Symphony Orchestra League. Music Director William McGlaughlin (now well known as the host of Exploring Music on National Public Radio) arrived in 1982 and established the Joy of Music series for families with young children. He was succeeded by Robert Bernhardt in 1987, who became

1166-406: A wider range of chromatic possibilities in hard-to-tune keyboard instruments. Although J.S. Bach did not use equal temperament, changes in the temperaments from the then-common meantone system to various temperaments that made modulation between all keys musically acceptable made possible his Well-Tempered Clavier . Baroque instruments included some instruments from the earlier periods (e.g.,

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1272-482: A written musical tradition. In this context, the terms "serious" or "cultivated" are frequently used to present a contrast with ordinary, everyday music (i.e. popular and folk music , also called " vernacular music "). Many cultures have art music traditions ; in the Western world , the term typically refers to Western classical music . In Western literature, "Art music" is mostly used to refer to music descending from

1378-516: Is frequently seen from the perspective of individual or groups of composers , whose compositions, personalities and beliefs have fundamentally shaped its history. Rooted in the patronage of churches and royal courts in Western Europe , surviving early medieval music is chiefly religious , monophonic and vocal, with the music of ancient Greece and Rome influencing its thought and theory. The earliest extant music manuscripts date from

1484-437: Is in this time that the notation of music on a staff and other elements of musical notation began to take shape. This invention made possible the separation of the composition of a piece of music from its transmission ; without written music, transmission was oral, and subject to change every time it was transmitted. With a musical score , a work of music could be performed without the composer's presence. The invention of

1590-467: Is one of the only female composers mentioned." Abbey Philips states that "[d]uring the 20th century the women who were composing/playing gained far less attention than their male counterparts." Art music Art music (alternatively called classical music , cultivated music , serious music , and canonic music ) is music considered to be of high phonoaesthetic value . It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerations or

1696-604: Is required. Performance of classical music repertoire requires a proficiency in sight-reading and ensemble playing, harmonic principles, strong ear training (to correct and adjust pitches by ear), knowledge of performance practice (e.g., Baroque ornamentation), and a familiarity with the style/musical idiom expected for a given composer or musical work (e.g., a Brahms symphony or a Mozart concerto). The key characteristic of European classical music that distinguishes it from popular music , folk music , and some other classical music traditions such as Indian classical music ,

1802-405: Is that the repertoire tends to be written down in musical notation , creating a musical part or score . This score typically determines details of rhythm, pitch, and, where two or more musicians (whether singers or instrumentalists) are involved, how the various parts are coordinated. The written quality of the music has enabled a high level of complexity within them: fugues , for instance, achieve

1908-454: Is to engage, educate and transform our community through live musical experiences of the highest quality. The Orchestra has played under the leadership of the following music directors: European classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world , considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music , as

2014-401: Is typically defined as the era between the formation and the dissolution of common-practice tonality . The term usually spans roughly two-and-a-half centuries, encompassing the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods. Baroque music is characterized by the use of complex tonal counterpoint and the use of a basso continuo , a continuous bass line. Music became more complex in comparison with

2120-482: The Baroque flute , Baroque oboe , recorder and the bassoon . Brass instruments included the cornett , natural horn , natural trumpet , serpent and the trombone . Keyboard instruments included the clavichord , the tangent piano , the harpsichord , the pipe organ , and, later in the period, the fortepiano (an early version of the piano). Percussion instruments included the timpani , snare drum , tambourine and

2226-512: The Carolingian Empire (800–888), around the time which Western plainchant gradually unified into what is termed Gregorian chant . Musical centers existed at the Abbey of Saint Gall , the Abbey of Saint Martial and Saint Emmeram's Abbey , while the 11th century saw the development of staff notation and increasing output from medieval music theorists . By the mid-12th century France became

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2332-613: The First Viennese School , sometimes called the "Viennese classics", a coupling that remains problematic by reason of none of the three being born in Vienna and the minimal time Haydn and Mozart spent in the city. While this was an often expressed characterization, it was not a strict one. In 1879 the composer Charles Kensington Salaman defined the following composers as classical: Bach , Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber , Spohr and Mendelssohn . More broadly, some writers used

2438-763: The Renaissance , including the more complex voicings of motets . During the earlier medieval period , the vocal music from the liturgical genre, predominantly Gregorian chant , was monophonic , using a single, unaccompanied vocal melody line. Polyphonic vocal genres, which used multiple independent vocal melodies, began to develop during the high medieval era , becoming prevalent by the later 13th and early 14th century. Notable Medieval composers include Hildegard of Bingen , Léonin , Pérotin , Philippe de Vitry , Guillaume de Machaut , Francesco Landini , and Johannes Ciconia . Many medieval musical instruments still exist, but in different forms. Medieval instruments included

2544-438: The Western world , and conversely, in many academic histories the term "Western music" excludes non-classical Western music. Another complication lies in that "classical music" is sometimes used to describe non-Western art music exhibiting similar long-lasting and complex characteristics; examples include Indian classical music (i.e. Carnatic Music Hindustani music and Odissi Music ), Gamelan music, and various styles of

2650-449: The art song , symphonic poem and various piano genres were important vessels. During this time virtuosity was celebrated, immensity was encouraged, while philosophy and nationalism were embedded—all aspects that converged in the operas of Richard Wagner . By the 20th century, stylistic unification gradually dissipated while the prominence of popular music greatly increased. Many composers actively avoided past techniques and genres in

2756-474: The castanets . One major difference between Baroque music and the classical era that followed it is that the types of instruments used in Baroque ensembles were much less standardized. A Baroque ensemble could include one of several different types of keyboard instruments (e.g., pipe organ or harpsichord), additional stringed chordal instruments (e.g., a lute), bowed strings, woodwinds, and brass instruments, and an unspecified number of bass instruments performing

2862-421: The contrabassoon , bass clarinet and piccolo and new percussion instruments were added, including xylophones , snare drums , celestas (a bell-like keyboard instrument), bells , and triangles , large orchestral harps , and even wind machines for sound effects . Saxophones appear in some scores from the late 19th century onwards, usually featured as a solo instrument rather than as in integral part of

2968-514: The fall of the Western Roman Empire by 476 to about 1400. Monophonic chant, also called plainsong or Gregorian chant , was the dominant form until about 1100. Christian monks developed the first forms of European musical notation in order to standardize liturgy throughout the Church. Polyphonic (multi-voiced) music developed from monophonic chant throughout the late Middle Ages and into

3074-671: The flute , the recorder and plucked string instruments like the lute . As well, early versions of the organ and fiddle (or vielle ) existed. Medieval instruments in Europe had most commonly been used singly, often self accompanied with a drone note, or occasionally in parts. From at least as early as the 13th century through the 15th century there was a division of instruments into haut (loud, shrill, outdoor instruments) and bas (quieter, more intimate instruments). A number of instrument have roots in Eastern predecessors that were adopted from

3180-458: The guitar , the cittern , the bandora , and the orpharion . Keyboard instruments with strings included the harpsichord and the clavichord . Percussion instruments include the triangle , the Jew's harp , the tambourine , the bells, the rumble-pot, and various kinds of drums. Woodwind instruments included the double-reed shawm (an early member of the oboe family), the reed pipe , the bagpipe ,

3286-416: The impressionist beginning around 1890 and the expressionist that started around 1908. It was a period of diverse reactions in challenging and reinterpreting older categories of music, innovations that lead to new ways of organizing and approaching harmonic, melodic, sonic, and rhythmic aspects of music, and changes in aesthetic worldviews in close relation to the larger identifiable period of modernism in

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3392-437: The lyre (a stringed instrument similar to a small harp ) eventually led to several modern-day instruments of a symphonic orchestra. However, Donald Jay Grout notes that attempting to create a direct evolutionary connection from the ancient music to early medieval is baseless, as it was almost solely influenced by Greco-Roman music theory, not performance or practice. Medieval music includes Western European music from after

3498-460: The standard concert repertoire are male composers, even though there have been a large number of women composers throughout the history of classical music. Musicologist Marcia Citron has asked "[w]hy is music composed by women so marginal to the standard 'classical' repertoire?" Citron "examines the practices and attitudes that have led to the exclusion of women composers from the received ' canon ' of performed musical works". She argues that in

3604-465: The systematic notational practices of Ancient Greece centuries before. The musicologist Gustave Reese notes, however, that many Greco-Roman texts can still be credited as influential to Western classical music, since medieval musicians regularly read their works—regardless of whether they were doing so correctly. However, there are some indisputable musical continuations from the ancient world . Basic aspects such as monophony , improvisation and

3710-531: The transverse flute , the recorder , the dulcian , and the crumhorn . Simple pipe organs existed, but were largely confined to churches, although there were portable varieties. Printing enabled the standardization of descriptions and specifications of instruments, as well as instruction in their use. Vocal music in the Renaissance is noted for the flourishing of an increasingly elaborate polyphonic style. The principal liturgical forms which endured throughout

3816-431: The 1750s and 1760s, it fell out of use at the end of the century. Brass instruments included the buccin , the ophicleide (a replacement for the bass serpent , which was the precursor of the tuba ) and the natural horn . Wind instruments became more refined in the Classical era. While double-reed instruments like the oboe and bassoon became somewhat standardized in the Baroque, the clarinet family of single reeds

3922-416: The 1800s, women composers typically wrote art songs for performance in small recitals rather than symphonies intended for performance with an orchestra in a large hall, with the latter works being seen as the most important genre for composers; since women composers did not write many symphonies, they were deemed not to be notable as composers. In the "... Concise Oxford History of Music , Clara S[c]humann

4028-501: The Baroque tendency for complexity, and as a reaction the simpler and song-like galant music and empfindsamkeit styles were developed. In the shorter but pivotal Classical period (1730–1820) composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Joseph Haydn , and Ludwig van Beethoven created widely admired representatives of absolute music , including symphonies , string quartets and concertos. The subsequent Romantic music (1800–1910) focused instead on programmatic music , for which

4134-468: The Classical era forms (even as those were being codified), with free-form pieces like nocturnes , fantasias , and preludes being written where accepted ideas about the exposition and development of themes were ignored or minimized. The music became more chromatic, dissonant, and tonally colorful, with tensions (with respect to accepted norms of the older forms) about key signatures increasing. The art song (or Lied ) came to maturity in this era, as did

4240-453: The Classical era, the composer-performer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was noted for his ability to improvise melodies in different styles. During the Classical era, some virtuoso soloists would improvise the cadenza sections of a concerto. During the Romantic era, Ludwig van Beethoven would improvise at the piano. Almost all of the composers who are described in music textbooks on classical music and whose works are widely performed as part of

4346-676: The French classique , itself derived from the Latin word classicus , which originally referred to the highest class of Ancient Roman citizens . In Roman usage, the term later became a means to distinguish revered literary figures; the Roman author Aulus Gellius commended writers such as Demosthenes and Virgil as classicus . By the Renaissance , the adjective had acquired a more general meaning: an entry in Randle Cotgrave 's 1611 A Dictionarie of

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4452-538: The French and English Tongues is among the earliest extant definitions, translating classique as "classical, formall [ sic ], orderlie, in due or fit ranke; also, approved, authenticall, chiefe, principall". The musicologist Daniel Heartz summarizes this into two definitions: 1) a "formal discipline" and 2) a "model of excellence". Like Gellius, later Renaissance scholars who wrote in Latin used classicus in reference to writers of classical antiquity ; however, this meaning only gradually developed, and

4558-527: The Linda Ronstadt Music Hall). The opening performance was led by Arthur Fiedler (who also participated in a parade on a fire truck as part of the festivities the following day). The TSO celebrated its 50th anniversary in the 1978-79 season, which included a concert featuring 99 musicians conducted by Music Director Dr. George Trautwein. Camil Van Hulse also returned to conduct the Rosamunde overture,

4664-636: The TSO's home downtown was renamed as the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall. In the 2023-24 season the TSO celebrates its 95th anniversary. The organization is a member of the League of American Orchestra's Group 3 with an annual budget of 6 million dollars. Over forty concerts a year are performed across the Classic, Masterworks, and Special Events series. The mission of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra

4770-536: The TSO's longest-serving Music Director, arrived in 1996. Under his leadership, the TSO began performances in 2000 at the acoustically excellent Catalina Foothills High School auditorium, which has since become a firm favorite as the TSO's second home. In 2003  the TSO Chorus was formed  under the direction of Dr. Bruce Chamberlain, and continues to perform with the orchestra today for Handel's Messiah and other orchestral choral masterworks. Maestro José Luis Gomez

4876-465: The achievements of classical antiquity. They were thus characterized as "classical", as was the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully (and later Christoph Willibald Gluck ), being designated as "l'opéra française classique". In the rest of continental Europe , the abandonment of defining "classical" as analogous to the Greco-Roman World was slower, primarily because the formation of canonical repertoires

4982-448: The aforementioned Mahler and Strauss as transitional figures who carried over from the 19th century. Postmodern music is a period of music that began as early as 1930 according to some authorities. It shares characteristics with postmodernist art – that is, art that comes after and reacts against modernism . Some other authorities have more or less equated postmodern music with the "contemporary music" composed well after 1930, from

5088-543: The arrival of Frederic Balazs, the TSO's first full-time, paid conductor and the debut of the Tucson Symphony Women's Association, the first organization formed to support the TSO. In 1958, the Tucson Symphony Youth Orchestra was founded, and it was also the first year of the annual Cotillion fundraiser. Through the 1960s, the orchestra continued to expand in size and in budget. The decade brought

5194-487: The arts of the time. The operative word most associated with it is "innovation". Its leading feature is a "linguistic plurality", which is to say that no single music genre ever assumed a dominant position. The orchestra continued to grow during the early years modernist era, peaking in the first two decades of the 20th century. Saxophones that appeared only rarely during the 19th century became more commonly used as supplementary instruments, but never became core members of

5300-713: The basso continuo,(e.g., a cello, contrabass, viola, bassoon, serpent, etc.). Vocal oeuvres of the Baroque era included suites such as oratorios and cantatas . Secular music was less common, and was typically characterized only by instrumental music. Like Baroque art , themes were generally sacred and for the purpose of a catholic setting. Important composers of this era include Johann Sebastian Bach , Antonio Vivaldi , George Frideric Handel , Johann Pachelbel , Henry Purcell , Claudio Monteverdi , Barbara Strozzi , Domenico Scarlatti , Georg Philipp Telemann , Arcangelo Corelli , Alessandro Scarlatti , Jean-Philippe Rameau , Jean-Baptiste Lully , and Heinrich Schütz . Though

5406-524: The brief English Madrigal School . The Baroque period (1580–1750) saw the relative standardization of common-practice tonality , as well as the increasing importance of musical instruments , which grew into ensembles of considerable size. Italy remained dominant, being the birthplace of opera , the soloist centered concerto genre, the organized sonata form as well as the large scale vocal-centered genres of oratorio and cantata . The fugue technique championed by Johann Sebastian Bach exemplified

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5512-409: The common practice period, such as traditional tonality, melody, instrumentation, and structure. Some music historians regard musical modernism as an era extending from about 1890 to 1930. Others consider that modernism ended with one or the other of the two world wars. Still other authorities claim that modernism is not associated with any historical era, but rather is "an attitude of the composer;

5618-572: The court of Imperial China (see yayue for instance). Thus in the later 20th century terms such as "Western classical music" and "Western art music" came in use to address this. The musicologist Ralph P. Locke notes that neither term is ideal, as they create an "intriguing complication" when considering "certain practitioners of Western-art music genres who come from non-Western cultures". Complexity in musical form and harmonic organization are typical traits of classical music. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED ) offers three definitions for

5724-538: The debut as a monumental achievement and said the audience greeted the Symphony's performance with “surprise, admiration and bursts of enthusiasm.” Though there were only two concerts the first season, the second offered three concerts and featured a new conductor, Joseph De Luca, who remained with the Symphony for five years. Concerts were held on Sunday evenings at 8:30. The early concert programs were all-orchestral; on March 16, 1930, soprano Mary Margaret Fischer appeared as

5830-484: The degree of social and artistic dialogue among rock musicians dramatically accelerated for bands who fused elements of composed music with the oral musical traditions of rock. During the late 1960s and 1970s, progressive rock bands represented a form of crossover music that combined rock with high art musical forms either through quotation, allusion, or imitation. Progressive music may be equated with explicit references to aspects of art music, sometimes resulting in

5936-481: The development of medieval musical thought. However, scholars, medieval music theorists and composers regularly misinterpreted or misunderstood the writings of their Greek and Roman predecessors. This was due to the complete absence of surviving Greco-Roman musical works available to medieval musicians, to the extent that Isidore of Seville ( c.  559 – 636 ) stated "unless sounds are remembered by man, they perish, for they cannot be written down", unaware of

6042-436: The dominance of text in musical settings are prominent in both early medieval and music of nearly all ancient civilizations. Greek influences in particular include the church modes (which were descendants of developments by Aristoxenus and Pythagoras), basic acoustical theory from pythagorean tuning , as well as the central function of tetrachords . Ancient Greek instruments such as the aulos (a reed instrument ) and

6148-533: The early 15th century, Renaissance composers of the influential Franco-Flemish School built off the harmonic principles in the English contenance angloise , bringing choral music to new standards, particularly the mass and motet . Northern Italy soon emerged as the central musical region, where the Roman School engaged in highly sophisticated methods of polyphony in genres such as the madrigal , which inspired

6254-525: The end of the century. Prominent composers of this era include Ludwig van Beethoven , Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , Frédéric Chopin , Hector Berlioz , Franz Schubert , Robert Schumann , Felix Mendelssohn , Franz Liszt , Giuseppe Verdi , Richard Wagner , Johannes Brahms , Alexander Scriabin , Nikolai Medtner , Edvard Grieg , and Johann Strauss II . Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss are commonly regarded as transitional composers whose music combines both late romantic and early modernist elements. At

6360-413: The end of the era, of nationalism in music (echoing, in some cases, political sentiments of the time), as composers such as Edvard Grieg , Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov , and Antonín Dvořák echoed traditional music of their homelands in their compositions. In the Romantic era, the modern piano , with a more powerful, sustained tone and a wider range took over from the more delicate-sounding fortepiano. In

6466-417: The entire Renaissance period were masses and motets, with some other developments towards the end, especially as composers of sacred music began to adopt secular forms (such as the madrigal ) for their own designs. Towards the end of the period, the early dramatic precursors of opera such as monody, the madrigal comedy , and the intermedio are seen. Around 1597, Italian composer Jacopo Peri wrote Dafne ,

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6572-583: The epic scales of grand opera , ultimately transcended by Richard Wagner 's Ring cycle . In the 19th century, musical institutions emerged from the control of wealthy patrons, as composers and musicians could construct lives independent of the nobility. Increasing interest in music by the growing middle classes throughout western Europe spurred the creation of organizations for the teaching, performance, and preservation of music. The piano, which achieved its modern construction in this era (in part due to industrial advances in metallurgy ) became widely popular with

6678-522: The first work to be called an opera today. He also composed Euridice , the first opera to have survived to the present day. Notable Renaissance composers include Josquin des Prez , Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina , John Dunstaple , Johannes Ockeghem , Orlande de Lassus , Guillaume Du Fay , Gilles Binchois , Thomas Tallis , William Byrd , Giovanni Gabrieli , Carlo Gesualdo , John Dowland , Jacob Obrecht , Adrian Willaert , Jacques Arcadelt , and Cipriano de Rore . The common practice period

6784-528: The first-ever grant from the Tucson City Council ($ 2500, in 1965), the first performance with the Tucson City Chorus (a sold-out 1966 event), the first sold-out concert season (1967), and the first year that the operating budget surpassed $ 100,000 (1968). In 1971, the TSO, under the direction of Music Director Gregory Millar moved to its current performance space- The Tucson Music Hall (now known as

6890-537: The former court musician John Banister began giving popular public concerts at a London tavern; his popularity rapidly inaugurated the prominence of public concerts in the London. The conception of "classical"—or more often "ancient music"—emerged, which was still built on the principles of formality and excellence, and according to Heartz "civic ritual, religion and moral activism figured significantly in this novel construction of musical taste". The performance of such music

6996-500: The hurdy-gurdy and recorder) and a number of new instruments (e.g., the oboe, bassoon, cello, contrabass and fortepiano). Some instruments from previous eras fell into disuse, such as the shawm, cittern , rackett , and the wooden cornet. The key Baroque instruments for strings included the violin , viol , viola , viola d'amore , cello , contrabass , lute , theorbo (which often played the basso continuo parts), mandolin , Baroque guitar , harp and hurdy-gurdy. Woodwinds included

7102-475: The late 20th century through to the early 21st century. Some of the diverse movements of the postmodern/contemporary era include the neoromantic, neomedieval, minimalist, and post minimalist. Contemporary classical music at the beginning of the 21st century was often considered to include all post-1945 musical forms. A generation later, this term now properly refers to the music of today written by composers who are still alive; music that came into prominence in

7208-409: The lens of modernism , with some abandoning tonality in place of serialism , while others found new inspiration in folk melodies or impressionist sentiments. After World War II, for the first time audience members valued older music over contemporary works, a preference which has been catered to by the emergence and widespread availability of commercial recordings. Trends of the mid-20th century to

7314-666: The likes of Jean Sibelius and Vaughan Williams infused their compositions with nationalistic elements and influences from folk songs. Sergei Prokofiev began in this tradition but soon ventured into modernist territories. At the same time, the impressionist movement, spearheaded by Claude Debussy , was being developed in France, with Maurice Ravel as another notable pioneer. Modernist classical music encompasses many styles of composition that can be characterised as post romantic, impressionist, expressionist, and neoclassical. Modernism marked an era when many composers rejected certain values of

7420-406: The listener. In strict western practice, art music is considered primarily a written musical tradition, preserved in some form of music notation , as opposed to being transmitted orally, by rote, or in recordings (like popular and traditional music ). There have been continual attempts throughout the history of popular music to make a claim for itself as art rather than as popular culture, and

7526-430: The major European musical center: The religious Notre-Dame school first fully explored organized rhythms and polyphony , while secular music flourished with the troubadour and trouvère traditions led by poet-musician nobles. This culminated in the court sponsored French ars nova and Italian Trecento , which evolved into ars subtilior , a stylistic movement of extreme rhythmic diversity. Beginning in

7632-534: The medieval Islamic world . For example, the Arabic rebab is the ancestor of all European bowed string instruments , including the lira , rebec and violin . The musical Renaissance era lasted from 1400 to 1600. It was characterized by greater use of instrumentation , multiple interweaving melodic lines, and the use of earlier forms of bass instruments . Social dancing became more widespread, so musical forms appropriate to accompanying dance began to standardize. It

7738-610: The mid-1970s. It includes different variations of modernist , postmodern , neoromantic , and pluralist music . Performers who have studied classical music extensively are said to be "classically trained". This training may come from private lessons from instrument or voice teachers or from completion of a formal program offered by a Conservatory, college or university, such as a Bachelor of Music or Master of Music degree (which includes individual lessons from professors). In classical music, "...extensive formal music education and training, often to postgraduate [Master's degree] level"

7844-416: The middle class, whose demands for the instrument spurred many piano builders. Many symphony orchestras date their founding to this era. Some musicians and composers were the stars of the day; some, like Franz Liszt and Niccolò Paganini , fulfilled both roles. European cultural ideas and institutions began to follow colonial expansion into other parts of the world. There was also a rise, especially toward

7950-410: The modern day, instruments may be classified as brass, strings, percussion, and woodwind. Brass instruments in the Renaissance were traditionally played by professionals who were members of Guilds and they included the slide trumpet , the wooden cornet , the valveless trumpet and the sackbut . Stringed instruments included the viol , the rebec , the harp-like lyre , the hurdy-gurdy , the lute ,

8056-596: The more flippantly used "real music" and "normal music". Musician Catherine Schmidt-Jones defines art music as "a music which requires significantly more work by the listener to fully appreciate than is typical of popular music". In her view, "[t]his can include the more challenging types of jazz and rock music, as well as Classical". The term "art music" refers primarily to classical traditions (including contemporary as well as historical classical music forms) that focus on formal styles, invite technical and detailed deconstruction and criticism, and demand focused attention from

8162-416: The movable-type printing press in the 15th century had far-reaching consequences on the preservation and transmission of music. Many instruments originated during the Renaissance; others were variations of, or improvements upon, instruments that had existed previously. Some have survived to the present day; others have disappeared, only to be re-created in order to perform music on period instruments. As in

8268-522: The orchestra's first soloist. Midway through the third season, the TSO moved to the Temple of Music and Art, first playing there on January 25, 1931. In the late 1930s, the TSO's financial situation was tenuous, prompting a decision to merge with the University of Arizona. From 1939-1950, the TSO existed under the auspices of the university, sharing access to music, offering credit to students who performed with

8374-519: The orchestra, and financial support. The orchestra performed under George C. Wilson from 1939 until his retirement in 1946, and then with Professor Samuel Fain from 1946 through his retirement in 1950. Concerts were held in the UArizona Auditorium (now known as Centennial Hall). As the 1950s opened, the orchestra was faced with a dilemma. Until this time, the musicians of the orchestra had not been paid. The Local 771 Union suggested payment of $ 15

8480-524: The orchestra, the existing Classical instruments and sections were retained ( string section , woodwinds, brass, and percussion), but these sections were typically expanded to make a fuller, bigger sound. For example, while a Baroque orchestra may have had two double bass players, a Romantic orchestra could have as many as ten. "As music grew more expressive, the standard orchestral palette just wasn't rich enough for many Romantic composers." The families of instruments used, especially in orchestras, grew larger;

8586-556: The orchestra. The Wagner tuba , a modified member of the horn family, appears in Richard Wagner 's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen . It also has a prominent role in Anton Bruckner 's Symphony No. 7 in E Major and is also used in several late romantic and modernist works by Richard Strauss, Béla Bartók , and others Cornets appear regularly in 19th century scores, alongside trumpets which were regarded as less agile, at least until

8692-526: The orchestra. While appearing only as featured solo instruments in some works, for example Maurice Ravel 's orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky 's Pictures at an Exhibition and Sergei Rachmaninoff 's Symphonic Dances , the saxophone is included in other works such as Sergei Prokofiev 's Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 and 2 and many other works as a member of the orchestral ensemble. In some compositions such as Ravel's Boléro , two or more saxophones of different sizes are used to create an entire section like

8798-695: The other sections of the orchestra. The euphonium is featured in a few late Romantic and 20th century works, usually playing parts marked "tenor tuba", including Gustav Holst 's The Planets , and Richard Strauss 's Ein Heldenleben . Prominent composers of the early 20th century include Igor Stravinsky , Claude Debussy , Sergei Rachmaninoff , Sergei Prokofiev , Arnold Schoenberg , Nikos Skalkottas , Heitor Villa-Lobos , Karol Szymanowski , Anton Webern , Alban Berg , Cécile Chaminade , Paul Hindemith , Aram Khachaturian , George Gershwin , Amy Beach , Béla Bartók , and Dmitri Shostakovich , along with

8904-524: The potential of a wider array of instruments was developed). Chamber music grew to include ensembles with as many as 8-10 performers for serenades . Opera continued to develop, with regional styles in Italy, France, and German-speaking lands. The opera buffa , a form of comic opera, rose in popularity. The symphony came into its own as a musical form, and the concerto was developed as a vehicle for displays of virtuoso playing skill. Orchestras no longer required

9010-656: The predominant music of ancient Greece and Rome , as it was a reminder of the pagan religion it had persecuted and by which it had been persecuted . As such, it remains unclear as to what extent the music of the Christian Church, and thus Western classical music as a whole, was influenced by preceding ancient music . The general attitude towards music was adopted from the Ancient Greek and Roman music theorists and commentators. Just as in Greco-Roman society, music

9116-513: The present day include New Simplicity , New Complexity , Minimalism , Spectral music , and more recently Postmodern music and Postminimalism . Increasingly global, practitioners from the Americas, Africa and Asia have obtained crucial roles, while symphony orchestras and opera houses now appear across the world. Both the English term classical and the German equivalent Klassik developed from

9222-465: The reformulation of jazz in the art discourse has been so successful that many (as of 2013) would not consider it a form of popular music. At the beginning of the 20th century, art music was divided into "serious music" and " light music ". During the second half of the century, there was a large-scale trend in American culture toward blurring the boundaries between art and pop music . Beginning in 1966,

9328-606: The reification of rock as art music. While progressive rock is often cited for its merging of high culture and low culture , few artists incorporated literal classical themes in their work to any great degree, as author Kevin Holm-Hudson explains: "sometimes progressive rock fails to integrate classical sources ... [it] moves continuously between explicit and implicit references to genres and strategies derived not only from European art music, but other cultural domains (such as East Indian, Celtic, folk, and African) and hence involves

9434-400: The simple songs of all previous periods. The beginnings of the sonata form took shape in the canzona , as did a more formalized notion of theme and variations . The tonalities of major and minor as means for managing dissonance and chromaticism in music took full shape. During the Baroque era, keyboard music played on the harpsichord and pipe organ became increasingly popular, and

9540-405: The style of their era. In the Baroque era, organ performers would improvise preludes , keyboard performers playing harpsichord would improvise chords from the figured bass symbols beneath the bass notes of the basso continuo part and both vocal and instrumental performers would improvise musical ornaments . Johann Sebastian Bach was particularly noted for his complex improvisations. During

9646-555: The term "classical music" can also be applied to non-Western art musics . Classical music is often characterized by formality and complexity in its musical form and harmonic organization , particularly with the use of polyphony . Since at least the ninth century it has been primarily a written tradition, spawning a sophisticated notational system, as well as accompanying literature in analytical , critical , historiographical , musicological and philosophical practices. A foundational component of Western culture , classical music

9752-634: The term "classical music" includes all Western art music from the Medieval era to the early 2010s, the Classical Era was the period of Western art music from the 1750s to the early 1820s —the era of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Joseph Haydn , and Ludwig van Beethoven . The Classical era established many of the norms of composition, presentation, and style, and when the piano became the predominant keyboard instrument. The basic forces required for an orchestra became somewhat standardized (though they would grow as

9858-442: The term "classical" to generally praise well-regarded outputs from various composers, particularly those who produced many works in an established genre. The contemporary understanding of the term "classical music" remains vague and multifaceted. Other terms such as "art music", "canonic music", "cultivated music" and "serious music" are largely synonymous. The term "classical music" is often indicated or implied to concern solely

9964-467: The tradition of Western classical music . Musicologist Philip Tagg refers to the elitism associated with art music as one of an "axiomatic triangle consisting of 'folk', 'art' and 'popular' musics". He explains that each of these three is distinguishable from the others according to certain criteria. According to Bruno Nettl , "Western classical music" may also be synonymous with "art music", "canonic music", "cultivated music", "serious music", as well as

10070-411: The turn of the century, music was characteristically late romantic in style with its expressive melodies, complex harmonies, and expansive forms. This era was marked by the works of several composers who pushed forward post-romantic symphonic writing . Composers such as Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss continued to develop the western classical tradition with expansive symphonies and operas, while

10176-405: The versions still in use today, such as the Baroque violin (which became the violin ), Baroque oboe (which became the oboe ) and Baroque trumpet, which transitioned to the regular valved trumpet. During the Classical era, the stringed instruments used in orchestra and chamber music such as string quartets were standardized as the four instruments which form the string section of the orchestra:

10282-417: The violin family of stringed instruments took the form generally seen today. Opera as a staged musical drama began to differentiate itself from earlier musical and dramatic forms, and vocal forms like the cantata and oratorio became more common. For the first time, vocalists began adding ornamentals to the music. The theories surrounding equal temperament began to be put in wider practice, as it enabled

10388-417: The violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Baroque-era stringed instruments such as fretted, bowed viols were phased out. Woodwinds included the basset clarinet , basset horn , clarinette d'amour , the Classical clarinet , the chalumeau , the flute, oboe and bassoon. Keyboard instruments included the clavichord and the fortepiano . While the harpsichord was still used in basso continuo accompaniment in

10494-472: The word "classical" in relation to music: The last definition concerns what is now termed the Classical period , a specific stylistic era of European music from the second half of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. The Western classical tradition formally begins with music created by and for the early Christian Church. It is probable that the early Church wished to disassociate itself from

10600-413: Was appointed in 2016, the TSO's first-ever Spanish-speaking music director. Under his artistic leadership, the TSO has expanded the quality and breadth of its programming, with a special focus on southern Arizona's cultural heritage. In his first season, the orchestra performed to 150,000 people at the iconic All Soul's Procession in downtown Tucson. Most recently, the TSO launched  ¡Celebration latina!,

10706-531: Was considered central to education; along with arithmetic, geometry and astronomy, music was included in the quadrivium , the four subjects of the upper division of a standard liberal arts education in the Middle Ages . This high regard for music was first promoted by the scholars Cassiodorus , Isidore of Seville , and particularly Boethius , whose transmission and expansion on the perspectives of music from Pythagoras , Aristotle and Plato were crucial in

10812-432: Was either minimal or exclusive to the upper classes. Many European commentators of the early 19th century found new unification in their definition of classical music: to juxtapose the older composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Joseph Haydn , and (excluding some of his later works ) Ludwig van Beethoven as "classical" against the emerging style of Romantic music . These three composers in particular were grouped into

10918-470: Was for a while subordinate to the broader classical ideals of formality and excellence. Literature and visual arts—for which substantial Ancient Greek and Roman examples existed—did eventually adopt the term "classical" as relating to classical antiquity, but virtually no music of that time was available to Renaissance musicians, limiting the connection between classical music and the Greco-Roman world . It

11024-564: Was in 18th-century England that the term 'classical' "first came to stand for a particular canon of works in performance." London had developed a prominent public concert music scene, unprecedented and unmatched by other European cities. The royal court had gradually lost its monopoly on music, in large part from instability that the Commonwealth of England 's dissolution and the Glorious Revolution enacted on court musicians. In 1672,

11130-456: Was not widely used until Mozart expanded its role in orchestral, chamber, and concerto settings. The music of the Romantic era , from roughly the first decade of the 19th century to the early 20th century, was characterized by increased attention to an extended melodic line, as well as expressive and emotional elements, paralleling romanticism in other art forms. Musical forms began to break from

11236-515: Was specialized by the Academy of Ancient Music and later at the Concerts of Antient Music series, where the work of select 16th and 17th composers was featured, especially George Frideric Handel . In France, the reign of Louis XIV ( r.  1638–1715 ) saw a cultural renaissance, by the end of which writers such as Molière , Jean de La Fontaine and Jean Racine were considered to have surpassed

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